Chapter 1: Trouble

"Go play, honey." Haley whispered, patting her son's head before he bolted out of the kitchen. Now all she had to face was her true problem--Nathan. "Why are you here?"

"I had to see you Haley." Nathan whimpered, tone turning soft. "I'm sorry. I truly am. I want to come home and be with you." he paused. "And Jaime."

"I can't Nathan." Haley sighed, turning away from him. She rubbed her head as a dull headache surfaced. Stress had run rampant in her life this past week.

"Please, Haley! Please!" he whispered.

"I thought you were better than what you did to me Nathan." she hissed quietly. "You were the one! I was so convinced that you wouldn't go back to your old ways! I can't get hurt again!" she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. "I just can't."

"I don't want to hurt you!" Nathan murmured, longing to embrace her in a comforting hug.

"You already did!" she sobbed, glaring at him. Her headache grew worse, and it was starting to cloud her vision.

"It was the Carrie! I didn't kiss her Haley! She kissed me!" Nathan pleaded, eyes imploring his sobbing wife.

"Likely story." Haley snapped, calming her cries and hiding the pain that built in her head. "You're just like any other guy."

"Haley. Please." Nathan hung his head, feeling as if he was just slapped in the face. "I'm so sorry."

"Nathan-" Haley grabbed her forehead as a blinding pain consumed her and she collapsed to the floor.

"HALEY!" Nathan yelled, lunging for her. "Haley? Baby?" Haley fell limp as Nathan scrambled for the phone.

"9-1-1 what is your emergency?" an operator answered.

"My wife. She's collapsed." Nathan informed her frantically.

"What's your address?" the operator asked.

"4347 Pine Avenue."

"What is your wife's name?"

"Haley."

"Is Haley breathing?" the operator inquired.

"I don't…" Nathan rushed to Haley and checked her pulse and lungs. "She isn't breathing! Oh God, she isn't breathing!"

"Is Haley's heart beating?" the operator asked.

Nathan pressed his ear to her heart. "Her heart isn't beating! Is she dead!?"

"Calm down. Help is on the way. Stay on the phone." the operator said calmly. "What is your name?"

"Nathan. Nathan Scott." Nathan said.

"Okay, Nathan. You need to start CPR." the operator said. "And it's going to sound very unpleasant when you start compressions, but you have to keep going."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"Would you knock it off?" Brooke laughed, hitting Peyton in the arm playfully.

"What? It's true!" Peyton giggled. Lindsay, Lucas's fiancée, was always the punch line for every joke in their house since they found out about her. It was a way to get over the numbing pain of betrayal that sat in the middle of Peyton's heart.

Peyton lifted another shot of vodka to her mouth, but Brooke quickly put her hand on the top of it. "No more drinks for you girlie." she laughed, grabbing the vodka and downing it herself. "You've had too many." Brooke grabbed the bottle and dashed to the couch.

"Brooke! Why can't I have just one more?" Peyton whined, following her.

"Because you've had too many this week." Brooke propped herself up on the couch and laid her legs on Peyton when she sat down. "I'm tired of seeing you wasted every night. Your liver must be screaming in protest by now."

"I'm not even wasted!" Peyton laughed.

"Uh-huh." Brooke said, narrowing her eyes in her hopeless friend's direction. "A boy should not bring you to do this to yourself P. Sawyer."

"He's not just a boy." Peyton muttered. "He's Lucas Scott." Peyton snatched the vodka bottle away from Brooke and chugged it while fighting a stunned Brooke off with her free hand. "There." Peyton sighed, wiping off her mouth and handing the bottle back to Brooke. "You can have it now."

"That's it." Brooke muttered, swinging her feet off the edge of the couch and setting the empty vodka bottle on the coffee table. "You need help."
"I wouldn't be talking if I were you." Peyton snapped.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Brooke demanded, grabbing her by her shoulders. Peyton's smile faded into a frown.

"He was the one Brooke." she whispered, fighting the onslaught of tears that greeted her every night when she got drunk.

"How do you know there isn't someone else out there for you?" she asked. "I'm sure you will find someone who will make you happier than Lucas did."

"There is no other level of happiness for me Brooke." Peyton's eyes spotted Lucas's novel on the coffee table.

Brooke's cell phone pierced through the silence. Brooke kissed Peyton's forehead before scrambling to get her cell phone. "Stay here." She ran over to the counter and answered it. "This is Brooke Davis."

"Brooke!" a male voice asked frantically.

"Who is this?"

"It's Lucas!"

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Brooke inquired.

"It's Haley. She's in the emergency room." Lucas cried.

"Oh my god!" Brooke gasped. "Okay, um…I'll be down there as quick as I can." Brooke hung up her phone and raced over to the couch. "I can't really leave you here, 

so come on." She threw Peyton's arm around her shoulder and picked her up off the couch.

"Where are we going?" Peyton groaned.

"Haley's in the hospital." Brooke said.

"Are you kidding!?" Peyton exclaimed. Brooke grabbed her purse off the table on the way out the door.

"I wish I was." Brooke frowned, helping Peyton through the door.