This is my take on Rachel coming back. I wanted to post this before the show started the new season, and I lost track of time so I'm cutting it close. lol :). I wrote this a while ago and the next parts are all done, so all I need know are REVIEWS.

ENJOY.

Rachel Gatina to Brooke Davis

I look down at the phone in my hand. I see the name highlighted, waiting for me to press the big, green button. Can I do this? Should I do this? What's going to happen if I do this? What's going to happen if I don't do this? Will she forgive me? Can she forgive? This is only the first of many bullets you have to bite, Gatina. Just do it. I pressed the green button.

4 rings. That's all it took for me to hear the voice that's been in my head for the last year and a half. "Hello?" She answered the phone with apprehension in her voice. Like she was scared of what she would hear on the other end of the phone. I guess that's understandable. My name hasn't come up on her phone for a while, or at least the number, if she deleted my name.

"Hey, Brooke, it's Rachel."

"What do you want?" Her voice is now full of the bitchiness that I recognize from our early years.

"I...I." I had to stop and take a deep breath. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay."

"I bet you are, with the money you stole from me."

"I will give you back every cent, Brooke, I swear. I just needed it to clean myself up."

"I don't believe you. I can't believe you."

"I know and that's okay. But I really did use it to get clean. I couldn't do it here, not with you. I had to do it on my own so I left the country. I'm clean now, Brooke, and I have the money that I took from you."

"So where have you been, besides rehab?" Brooke asked in a slightly nicer tone

"Well, right now I'm sitting outside of a Starbucks in Charlotte. Brooke, I want you to know that I wanted to come back sooner, but I had to make sure that I could live on my own again. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had come back and wrecked your life again."

"You didn't wreck my life, Rachel."

"Well, I didn't exactly help you. And you didn't need to deal with me with everything you had on your plate. Your mother was right, I didn't need to be there pulling you away from the things that really mattered.

"Wait, when did you talk to my mother?"

"She came in when you and Peyton were at Jamie's party."

"Rachel, you were never a hindrance to my career. Whatever my mother said to you was a lie."

"But still, Brooke, you're my best friend, practically my only friend, I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you in some way, and that's exactly what I was doing when I was there."

"Okay, I know you're not going to change your thinking so I want you to know that whatever my mother says is always different from what I think. And you're welcome here anytime, day or night."

"Okay, I'm glad we got this all settled." There was a pause in our conversation. I guess we didn't know what else to say. That is, until Brooke said the four words that I had been longing to hear from her.

"I forgive you, Rachel."

"Thank you, Brooke. I meant what I said. You really are my best friend, and I'm sorry about the way we ended things."

"It's in the past."

"Okay, well, I have to go."

"Okay, bye, Slut"

"Bye, Skank." I said with a smile and disconnected the call. One down, three to go.

Well there you have it. Tell me what you think.

REVIEW.

TVCrazed.