Summary: He's like broken glass; beautiful but with edges so sharp and jagged that you could bleed trying to pick up the pieces. There are those willing to try and piece him back together… People like his parents, Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis. AU.
Need to Knows: In season 4 Brooke really was pregnant but when she finally found the courage to tell Lucas Karen died giving birth to Lily. So after graduation Brooke fled to New York with her mother who forced her to give up their baby. Before Lucas almost married Lindsey Brooke came back and told Lucas the truth. After that Lucas fled from Tree Hill with six year old Lily. Nathan, Haley, Jamie, Lydia, Quinn, Clay, and Logan's storylines stay pretty much the same but other characters such as Peyton, Jake, Brooke, and Lucas's have changed. Future AU fic.
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xFumblingThroughTheGray
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Wading Through Broken Glass
A One Tree Hill Second Generation Fanfiction
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Prelude
There's a rhythm to the city below humming up into the evening air and breezing in past billowing curtains. To anybody else, it's just noise: honking of horns, the random guy on the street corner drumming away on a bucket and singing for spare change, the trains off in the distance, just sounds of life happening around. But for as long he could remember it's been the soundtrack to his life, the background noise that helps dull the fact that he's practically alone in this world. But it doesn't erase it. Nothing can.
It's always going to be there. Those sets of parent sized exit wound existing in his heart. No matter how hard he tries to fill it, to patch it, to do anything and everything to fix it, it's always going to be there. There's no use fighting it… but that doesn't mean the stubborn teen doesn't try. Strapping on his gloves, he moves across the loft to his punching bag and getting to work. It starts slow. A punch, a well-placed kick but the walls he built around a particular memory crumble and he loses himself to reliving it.
Jab. Jab. Uppercut. Rapid flashes of oncoming headlights. Jab. Low Kick. Shovel Hook. Connection… everything spinning out of control, rolling, tossing, turning… stopping upside down. Cross. Jab. Roundhouse Kick. Strong arms pulling him from the car… the pitter patter of small feet moving away from the vehicle… Jab. Jab. Casting Punch. Double Kick. Explosion… Orphaned.
His heavy mind weighs down on even heavier limbs and he collapses into the bag, sweat pouring through his pores and chest heaving madly up and down as his lungs struggle to get a sufficient supply of oxygen. Gloved hands claw at the bag in an attempt to keep him upright, arm muscles clenching fighting the battle his legs were losing at the moment. And after struggling, he found strength tucking memories back into the Pandora's Box they exploded out of… just in time to hear a voice drawing him back.
"'Ey Archer, I've got our newest target," she called, her voice carrying from the upper open area of the loft.
A large gulp is taken by the teenager as he pushes himself up off the bag in attempt to mask the mess behind the man. A hand is ran through his messy mane of finger length sandy blonde and muscles in his neck contract as he turns to look up at the exotic beauty leaning against the metal banister. She's beautiful, breathtakingly so, with chocolate spirals of hair and even chocolatier eyes. But Paige's more than a pretty face. To those that control the world through corrupt actions, she's a curse that brings living chaos with the mere flicker of one of her breathtaking smiles.
And he was no better. They were a modern day infusion of Bonnie and Clyde with Robin Hood spending the past year delivering their own brand of social justice. Justice including and not limited to draining the bank account and putting behind bars of a notorious black market dealer, Alexander McClain… the father of Paige.
"Really, and who's that?" he asks between the heavy breaths of his body catching up.
"Some jackass heading an identity fraud scam," she says like it's part of every twenty year olds vocabulary.
After spending his early life in the foster system doused in abuse, neglect, and early trauma's galore, Caine ran away to New York where a kind old man by the name of Mackey let him stay at his gym and taught him to fight. Then, at fifteen he met Paige, who taught him everything else he knows. And in hindsight, it might've been a little too much.
Because she taught him how to control a situation, how to get what he wants and after doing a dozen jobs she orchestrated, he wants his turn to pick the mark. He closes the space between them unstrapping his gloves and casting them aside somewhere along the way. Grey polyester basketball shorts hang loosely over narrowed hips swaying a mere inch above brawny calf muscles until he stops before her leaning with his lower back against the banister and muscular arms crossed over his chest.
"We could do that," he starts, drawing the last syllable out to alert her that there's a contrasting plan underway. "Or we could try something new, someone unexpected to keep the feds off our tracks. Lord knows they don't like it when people do their jobs better than they do."
It was an intriguing idea, fueled by logic and laced with a hidden agenda… an idea that will tell the feds that when they think they have all the answers the two will change the question so she bites.
"Who do ya' have in mind?"
Calmly and coolly, he responds like he doesn't have so much invested in this mark, "Davis Enterprises."
Laughter spills from his lips at the preposterous idea. Of all the corporations in all the world he wanted to take down Davis Enterprises and its assets like Clothes Over Bro's, B. Davis Magazine, and Clothes For Bro's. Chocolate orbs lock in on Caine searching for any sign of a joke but his expression was as stony as Stonehenge. Thin brows furrow beneath the confusion and she can't help the disbelief lacing her tone.
"You want to take down a fashion empire?"
"No," he responds leaning in with a hushed whisper almost making her want to sigh in relief just before he threw another curve ball her way. "I wanna take down Brooke Davis."
There's a venom in his tone as he said her name, a hatred that makes her know this mark is a personal target. There was a bone to pick with Brooke Davis and she was curious as to what.
"What's Brooke Davis got to do with anything?"
Words he's about to utter have never been pushed past his lips. It's a truth he knows once voiced will change his world. Lips quiver with the weight of his confession and Paige picks it up immediately. He'd never been one to show weakness, never been one to be vulnerable before someone else but with her he was always willing to try. The brunette's soft hands reach up and cup his face causing the edge of his lips to curl up into a small smile loosening him up enough to let his most guarded secret slip.
"Everything. She's my mother."
Next Chapter: Caine meets his Mommy
Lucas & Brooke Talk for first time in a decade!
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