Author's note: Thank you so much for all of your reviews, Angell (especially you!), Sherri, Clarissa, Surfrusty, Becca, Koumi11, Brulian4ever and also those who added 'permanent' to your alerts and favourites. Here's the second chapter, hope you enjoy it.

Day Two

She never really believed in God, religion, or praying for that matter. She's always been someone who goes by instinct, motivated by emotion and has always been spontaneous.

So why is she still running away from him?

Contrary to every tug of the heart that he pulls, every shred of her instinct screaming at her to just get it over with and let him in, she can't.

So she does what she knows best, and how she does it best. At 7am sharp, Julian's signature cologne announces his arrival, his hand, as prompt as ever, holds a large cup of coffee, she doesn't even have to guess that it's her favourite creamy latte, extra foam. Too bad she already beat him to it.

Kind of on purpose.

'I already got my morning fix, thanks.' It came out bitchier and more sarcastic than she intended, so she takes a long sip to avoid the hurt gaze in his shaky orbs. It's so her to actually see last night as a weakness, something she should be embarrassed by. So she deals with this by pushing him even further away, but he knows, of course he does.

He's freaking Julian Baker, and he breathes her.

'Brooke', he's sat beside her now, and she can't help but notice, amidst her performance, that his arm is touching hers slightly, and she has to stop breathing, almost for two seconds. 'It's okay to accept help sometimes you know, even with just coffee.'

Who does he think he is? An expert on the inner mind of Brooke Davis?

Yes he is, don't deny it, Brooke. You know he is.

'What are you talking about? I got here early, and got some coffee, it's not some ridiculous ploy to avoid drinking yours.'

Now that she said it out loud, she realised how pathetic it really is, that she really is doing that.

'Why are you getting so worked up over this?' His voice is soft and soothing, calm, almost, and it makes her feel inadequate somehow, like she's not his equal.

So again, she retaliates the only way she knows how, 'why are you still here?'

The only way to escape his hurt expression and the effect that it will have on her already broken heart, is to get up and walk away.

So that's what she did.

It's a little bit past lunch time now, and nobody's around except for them. She knows that he's still hanging around, talking on his blackberry, flipping through scripts, waiting for her. She doesn't take advantage of his patience and love, but feels so comforted by the force somehow, because she knows, whatever she throws at it, it'll never waver.

Most people call that unconditional, she sees it as permanence.

And although she's comforted by it, she's also terrified.

What has she done, really, apart from giving him her body and little tangled pieces of her heart and mind.

Maybe that's what she's truly scared of, someone who really knows her and is willing to love her unconditionally, although she's only provided him with little tidbits and previews of her soul, he's somehow managed to figure out the rest, and has dug well past the surface, making his way through her walls.

She's being found out, and that excites her, yet crushes her at the same time.

They haven't exchanged a word since the coffee incident, so she decides, at 1:35pm that it's time for her to make an initiative. A peace offering of some sort.

'Hey'

He barely looks up at her, and she knows that it's not because he's angry, it's because he doesn't want to expose his pain, because she'll feel bad.

They know each other so well it's almost crazy, they just don't say anything or do anything productive with it.

'I'm sorry'

Short, sweet and to the point, she's never been one for long winded, poetic, dramatic expressions. Although it doesn't go lost on her that if he said what she had earlier, an 'I'm sorry' would not be enough, no way.

But for her, the fact that she admits she's wrong, without saying so, is enough.

She just hopes it's enough for him, it probably is though, although she sometimes wishes it isn't, so she can fight her defenses and maybe attempt an embarrassing speech.

Or two.

She thinks she can, with him. He can make her do anything, he's that good.

'About what I said, I uh, I'm actually glad you're here'.

Oh, she's not just glad, and that was all she could muster up. It's truly pathetic, almost laughable. If he wanted an embarrassing speech, maybe he'd have to stick around for a few years.

Not that she'd mind at all, but she wouldn't say or dare to think anything of that sort.

He nods, 'do you want to grab a burger? At a greasy, meaty joint? Far from here?'

She smiles gratefully and unconsciously takes his hand in hers.

It doesn't dawn on her until she sees his grin, she hastily drops it, and walks to the elevator without him.

Even the oily, but delicious greasy taste of burgers and onion rings on her hand can't shake away the warmth she felt from his hand, so she subtly asks him if he wanted the ketchup, and makes sure that her thumb grazes his during the exchange.

After their late impromptu lunch to the burger joint a little outside town, they walked around the hospital gift shop, where he embarrassed her by making faces with the teddy bears and accidentally, but kind of on purpose, popping one of the balloons, and attempting a horrible fake helium balloon induced voice.

She knows he does it just to see her laugh, lighten up a little, because he overheard how Peyton's not doing much better than yesterday.

She doesn't even know why, but over a cup of coffee (how many has she had recently?), at the coffee shop across the street ( she literally had to be dragged out of that damn hospital), she begins telling Julian about Lucas's accident in junior year, and how she was always in the hospital, but Peyton was too scared to even spend an hour there. Although it was most likely because of her then, she just didn't know it, Brooke also admits to being the scared one right now.

'Is that why you only sit outside?' He asks, but curses himself when a tear slips down her flawless face.

She merely nods.

'You must have really cared for Lucas, to be able to do that', he meant it as a compliment, and purposely avoided the cursed L word, and felt suddenly afraid that she would see it as another argument brewing up.

To his surprise, she only nods, and he wonders what she's thinking.

Not as much as I care about you.

Pretty soon afterwards she's crying, not caring that her make up is smudged and that people are kind of looking over at them. But he thinks it's good for her to let it all out. He fights the urge to hug her, kiss her, or even run his fingers through her hair, so he feebly offers her tear stained face his best smile, and whispers that he'll be here for her.

It's a little past 10pm now, and it suddenly crosses her mind how if Peyton wasn't in this coma, she wouldn't have ever spent this time with Julian, and she's not happy that her best friend is fighting for two lives by any means, it just crosses her mind briefly that maybe this coma does have benefits, and perhaps a God exists up there somewhere.

Typical her to feel instantly disgusted at herself, at how that kind of thought ever crossed her mind. But she's sure that when Peyton wakes up, she'll let her know about this evil thought, and they'll laugh about it. God, they're horrible to each other, Brooke ponders, the cheating, lying, bitching. '

But she comes to the conclusion that things are what they are, and what matters is that their love is unconditional, it's permanent.

She also wonders why the word doesn't scare her when referred to her life long friendship with Peyton. Maybe because although through their permanence, they've hurt each other so much that it's somehow evened out. If she was to have a permanent furture with Julian, and they hurt each other too, it might well destroy her completely.

That's the difference, she decided. Her friendship with Peyton compliments her, but Julian, he's a completely different story.

He's her.

Every fiber of her being, belongs to him. God forbid she learnt all this today, over a greasy burger and countless cups of coffee. Only two days with him and she goes crazy.

At a little bit after midnight, Nathan and Haley are back, and Lucas is freshly showered and changed, so is he. Brooke tries to ignore how his chest seems to mould into that grey v neck sweater, and how his hair is only slightly damp. Her mind flashes back to their first shower together, and how she ran her shampoo covered hands through his short locks as he grinned.

They're sitting all together in the waiting room, he seems to blend into the group this time, and she can't help but wonder if this means they look permanent.

Lucas is still curious, she thinks, and if she dare says, a bit impressed.

'How long do you think you're staying in Tree Hill?'

Out of the corner of her eye, she can feel Haley's soft eyes on her, and she keeps her eye focused, as if she doesn't really care when he's leaving.

Although they're so far beyond that point, those petty games.

She doesn't know why she still does it, she's so transparent to everybody that she should stop embarrassing herself and speak the truth for once.

'I'll stay until she's okay'

And she knows that he didn't mean Peyton, not really.