Nathan woke up and looked around the room; something was missing well more like someone was missing. He shot up in bed and scanned the room noting that Brooke was gone. Sighing he pulled himself out of bed and towards the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for class.

30 minutes later Nathan reentered his bedroom and tried to wake Jordan up for class. He laughed as Jordan swatted his hand away and got out of bed muttering about killing Nathan later. He turned back to his make-shift closet and threw on basketball shorts and a t-shirt not really caring what he looked like. As he was grabbing his stuff for class someone knocked on the door.

"Hold on." He zipped his back-pack and opened the door. Brooke stood in front of him with tears flowing freely down her face. "Brooke what's wrong?"

"Its Keith." Nathan tensed and fell back onto the bed behind him. "Nathan there was an accident last night, you're mom's fine but Keith's in a coma." He was shocked, he just seen them last night.

"W-where are they?"

"Tree Hill."

"How?"

"They flew home right after the game and they were on their way home from the airport when they were hit by a drunk driver." He stood up and started throwing clothes in a bag. "Your mom took care of stuff with the school, I'll see you when you come back." He turned towards her a mixture of confusion and hurt in his eyes, it felt like he was losing his father and someone who meant so much to him in one day.

"You have to come with me, you can't make me do this myself." She nodded and they left running into Jordan on the way out.

"Where are you going?"

"Family emergency, we'll be back soon." Jordan nodded and they ran outside to catch the cab that was waiting for them.

When they arrived in Tree Hill Nathan couldn't help but grab Brooke's hand and hold on. She pulled him to her and they tightly embraced as Nathan finally broke down. The ride to the hospital was filled with Brooke's reassuring words that Keith was going to be okay.

Deb met them outside the hospital and Nathan held her as silent sobs racked through her body. "Come on mom let's go inside." Nathan said calmly his voice cracking just a little. Brooke knew that it was bad when Nathan started to lose it and was determined to be there for him. Deb and Karen sat next to his bed and Nathan held on to Brooke, it was natural to both of them.

After they were in the room for an hour or so Luke and Peyton arrived. Brooke's breath caught in her throat when she saw him but Nathan squeezed her shoulder before him and Luke shared a short hug.

"Hey Brooke."

"Lucas, Peyton." She replied coldly standing up next to Nathan.

"How's school?" Nathan in spite of everything that was happening smiled and looked at Brooke who gave a small but genuine smile.

"Why don't you kids go get something to eat, I don't think Nathan and Brooke have eaten." They nodded and left the room heading down to the cafeteria.

"School's great," Nathan started breaking the awkward but intense silence. "Tim's there which makes it fun and I have a girlfriend." He shot Brooke a look which made her smile. That was his way of kinda rubbing it in Luke's face that Brooke still wasn't hung up on him. "Oh yeah and I scored the winning basket last night."

"That's great Nate."

"So what have you two been up to?" Brooke asked feeling better after Nathan's little confession.

"Just the usual; school, work, basketball." Brooke wanted to smack them for not realizing what Nathan meant by he had a girlfriend.

"So Brooke what are you doing here?" Peyton asked causing both Nathan and Brooke to laugh. 'They really are perfect for each other.' Nathan thought as he motioned for Brooke to answer but she just shook her head wanting to hear Nathan say what he wanted to say.

"She's my girlfriend." To say that Luke and Peyton were shocked was an understatement, Luke for a minute looked furious but recovered quickly and Peyton well she looked smug for some insane reason and Nathan wondered why he ever dated her, 'She was great in bed.' His inner voice said making him choke on his water.

"So how long?" Peyton asked her bitchiness shining through full watt.

"Since we hooked up last night." Brooke replied her bitchiness totally winning out over Peyton's and Nathan was somewhat proud.

"So Nathan how's Hailey?" Peyton turned to him her bitch smile glued to her face.

"Don't know and really don't care, why don't you ask Luke I mean he's the one who slept with her last." Brooke's eyes bulged out of her head and she starred from Nathan to Luke.

"What the hell?" Brooke and Peyton asked at the same time going back and forth between Nathan and Luke.

"I don't know what you're talking about Nate." Luke's eyes were glued to the table and his voice seemed to have lost all emotion.

"I think you do; you couldn't stand to see me and her happy together so you decided to go ahead and seduce her to sleeping with you. Then you and her decided to hide it from me and kept doing it for months. Well I found out and I hate to admit it but Brooke I'm the one who sent you that note telling you about Luke." His once angry eyes softened to a little ashamed and Brooke squeezed his thigh under the table. Luke stood up storming off to who knows where. Peyton rushed after him leaving Nathan and Brooke alone.

"Thank you." Nathan's head shot up and he just stared at her. "Thank you for telling me about it so I could get out before I got really hurt. You shouldn't feel bad about what you did because you did the right thing." She stood up and Nathan enveloped her into a hug. "Oh by the way nice way of making him squirm." Nathan just smiled and kissed her sweetly.

"It was no problem I also enjoyed it." His smile faded as reality set in.

"Hey don't worry about Keith, okay?" His head fell into his hands as they sat there in the cafeteria. "Its okay just let it out." She pulled him into a hug and she sat there as Nathan silently cried. It broke her heart to see him in this much pain and knowing that there was nothing she could do to make everything okay. "I'm here for you no matter what." Nathan just held her tightly as silent sobs racked through his body.

"I can't lose him." He muttered as she gently tried to soothe him.

"I know." No one knew but when Dan died Nathan was actually upset. Now he wasn't as upset as he was now and Brooke knew because she was there for Nathan while Hailey was on tour. No one knew of the past that they actually shared….it was too deep to try and explain.