I am Mark Schwann. Happy? 3-parter at most. BL.
He doesn't want to be here. He wants to be anywhere but here actually, without this stupid black suit next to this stupid black casket in this church that smells too much like flowers. There has to be a million people here, for the girl who was taken too young, but only a few who truly knew her. Their two year old sits in his crying mothers arms and she looks around curiously, wondering why everyone is so sad and where her mommy is. He stands ready to make his eulogy when a million images from that night flash in his mind
"Luke." She whines, in the midst of another fight. Being married with a two-year old by 20 is bound to cause some problems. Butt her voice is different, not shrill and whiny, but painful.
"What?" He sighs, exasperated. She screams out in pain and it scares him so much that he jumps back.
"Make it stop, Luke! Make its stop. Ah, it hurts, it hurts Luke, God! Help me please!"
"Brooke! Brooke baby what's wrong, Brooke! Brooke!" He yells as her eyes drift closed. "I love you baby. I love you so much. Please come back to me."
She was pronounced dead before she hit the ambulance.
He stands at the podium, note cards in his trembling hands.
"I'm sorry." He says into the small microphone. "I can't do this." He walks down the few stairs and takes his daughter off his mother's lap and walks out. He can't do this, can't be here without her. He winds up in the cemetery, walking the familiar path to Keith. He sits their daughter Ellie down by his side and stares at the headstone.
"Hi Keith. I'm back, with Ellie. Listen there's something I need you to do for me. I know Brooke's probably already met up with you, somewhere. She hates to be alone… But anyway, I need you to take care of her. I know she could probably do it alone but she'll need someone to lean on eventually. And since I have to take care of Ellie, you need to be with her. Please just, make her believe that I love her, because God knows I didn't do that well enough." He says. Tears fall down his cheeks and he pulls Ellie close to him, looking into her blue eyes and at her moon-sized dimples. She looks too much like Brooke, with the dark hair and creamy pale skin. He pulls her into his chest and cries into her hair.
"I miss Momma." She says into her chest.
"I know babe. Me too."
- - -
It's another 30 minutes before everyone shoes up to bury her. He silently walks over, next to his mom, with Ellie clutched to his chest. She sucks her thumb and reaches up to play with the collar on Lucas's suit. He watches the casket lower into the ground and wants to jump on and protest and tell her to stop joking and come back, because he feels so alone without her. Just as Lucas feels his knees go weak, blonde curls appear beside him, and they share a look of complete and utter depression. Peyton take the baby from his arms, and Ellie's eyes brighten at the sight of her aunt, because it usually means her mom isn't far behind. But as her head whips around searching for the straight brown locks of her mother, she finds nothing. Her eyes fill with tears matching Peyton's and by now most people have left the grave sight, patting Lucas on the shoulder as they go. Peyton hands Ellie back to him and leaves and Ellie bursts into tears.
"I want Momma!" she yells, stamping her foot on the ground, hoping an intense temper tantrum would bring he mother back. "I want Momma now!"
Lucas breaks down at the sight of his little girl so upset, having no way to fix it and save her. He can't save anyone anymore. They sit in the graveyard crying as his mother watches with Lily and Andy from a distance, tears in their eyes too.
- - -
He comes back the day after and every day after that for a week but he doesn't say anything until today.
"Hey. Ellie made you this." He says, placing a small card on the ground next to her headstone. "I promised not to read it, she told me I couldn't. She really misses you. I do too. I'm sorry Babe. I'm so sorry." He says, falling against the stone and breaking down. "I promised you I'd save you. I promised and I failed because I couldn't do it. I hate myself and I hate this. This life without you sucks. We had a promise. Forever. You told me you'd stand by my side forever at our wedding. That you'd always be here for me. But your not. And you can't be." He says bitterly. "I love you."