So I finally got it done. This chapter was incredibly hard to write. I hate transition chapters, but this one majorly important, and now we can move on with the story!

I tried to keep this one cleaner cut, as advised by Miguel51 (thank you for the review and advice) but I am sorry if it didn't come out completely right. I'm hoping now that the hard part is over, the next chapter is easier to write and I will definitely be working on the polishing and cleaning it up.

Thanks for the continued support, this story has gotten more love than I was expecting and am happy that you are all interested! Let me know what you think and drop a Review! It only takes a second and they always make my day! Criticism is welcome too, but please, no senseless hate.

Thanks again and enjoy!

Brooke POV

The breath that I had been holding in rushed out almost painfully as I jumped up to stand between the two. I stuck both of my arms out in an unconscious effort to hide Peyton from sight, even though it was a pointless effort. The man standing before me turned his attention from the blonde on the bed and sent his electric eyes my way. It only took a few seconds for his shock to turn to a red hot glare.

"Brooke?" He asked, sounding incredulous. He glanced back at the blonde before raging out, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?"

I saw Peyton flinch at the booming voice out of the corner of my eye and fought not to do the same. I glanced back at her to see her staring at us with wide, scared eyes, tucking into herself. I turned back to my other friend and squared my shoulders, trying to stare him down. I set my face and quickly prepared myself for what was sure to be an ugly conversation. After all, I had never seen my friend this angry.

"Seriously Brooke, what the fuck is this!?" He asks again hotly. He tries to step closer to the bed but I matched his step and stopped him from getting any closer.

"Nathan! Just calm down!" I seethe out, trying not to yell and further startle the fragile girl behind me.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN!? Are you kidding me right now!? You want me to calm down! You're hiding away our missing friend and you want me to calm down!" He breathes out raggedly, face red in anger. "How long Brooke? How long have you had her back and not fucking told us!? We're her friends too! And what the fuck happened to her!? Did you do this!?"

"WHAT!?" I can't help but shout this time. "Are you fucking kidding me!? NO! I would never!" I take a deep breath to calm myself down. "Listen, I can explain this whole thing. Just...just shut up and go down stairs with me and I'll tell you what's going on."

Nathan looks at me as though he isn't sure whether or not to believe me before he glances back at Peyton. Sighing, he reaches for my arm and almost jumps at the high pitched squeal like cry that Peyton lets out. I immediately turn and see her lunge up to a sitting position and trying to get up. I quickly close the small distance between us and embrace her.

"Hey, hey baby. It's okay. You're okay." I tell her gently and rock her as she clings to me. I look down at her as her head rests on my chest. She's staring, or actually, more surprisingly, glaring at Nathan as he has also moved to sit on the edge of the bed, worried about her. He looks hurt and unsure by the look he's receiving from her and tries to reach out to her. She only pushes further into me and lets out a sort of hissing sound.

He flinches back and turns his concerned look my way, apparently momentarily forgetting his anger.

"Peyt?" He tries in a soft voice. She doesn't move from her spot against me though and shows no sign of taking any interest in her old friend.

Sighing, I direct my attention to Nathan but never loosen my grip on the blonde. "Nathan, maybe you should go..."

"Oh, and what? Forget all of this ever happened? Hell no!" He seethes out again, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

I shoot him a pointed look. "No," I speak with venom, "but here and now obviously isn't the place." I glance back down to the huddled figure in my arms. I meet Nathan's gaze again and continue, this time calmer. "Listen, just let me get everything under control here. Let her calm down. I'll call you in an hour or two and you can bring everyone over if you want, and we'll get this straightened out and I'll explain everything. Okay?"

His eyes shift again between myself and the blonde in my arms. I can see the distrust in his eyes and honestly I don't blame him. Finally, he lets out an aggravated sigh, "fine. But I swear Brooke, I will be back, whether you call or not!" His stern voice and set glare tell me that it's a promise, not a threat. I only nod my head and he moves to stand up. He stops to look back at us, or more precisely, Peyton. His face softens a little and he barely whispers out to her, "I hope you feel better soon Peyt. I've missed you and I'm really glad you're home." And with that he's out the door and I'm now faced with a very confused blonde, who doesn't look very happy with me...

Time Skip

I sighed again, rubbing my face. That seemed to be my thing today. I sat crouched down on the couch and sighed, yet again as I moved to sit up against the back of it, rubbing my temples. The stress from today was coming down on me like a hurricane. And the day had started out so nicely too... Oh well. Reality had to come crashing in at some point, no matter how much I tried to avoid it. Now I was faced with explaining my current situation, not only to my old friends, but also to Peyton.

Yea, that had been fun. As soon as Nathan had left, she had turned on me with that inquisitive look. I could see a hint of hurt in it too. I didn't want to hurt her by thinking I was lying to her, but I also didn't want to tell her the whole truth. Trying not to overwhelm her, I gave her a very basic explanation. Her other friends lived here in town, doctors didn't want to overwhelm her, we were waiting for her to get a little more grounded before I introducing her back into the big wide world, blah blah blah. In the end, she had seemed satisfied, but was now excited at the prospect of meeting everyone else, which is exactly what I was dreading.

I let out another breath, thinking about how I was going to explain this to our friends. I'd have to convince them to go along with the basic things I had told Peyton, especially leaving out the fact that she had left town years ago. Considering that the doctor really was concerned about her being overwhelmed though, and the fact that I'm sure they'd be pretty happy that she was back home themselves, I don't think it'll be totally impossible. That still didn't mean I was looking forward to it.

Ever since I made that call to Nathan about 20 minutes ago, my stomach has been in knots and the pounding in my head becoming even more prominent. I couldn't decide if I want to turn back time and avoid all of this or just go ahead and get it over with. The decision was apparently made for me though as I heard a knock on the door. Taking one last deep breath, I went over and opened the door.

"Hey," I started out sheepishly, unsure of what to say exactly I this situation.

Nathan, who was standing in the front of the line, only raised an eyebrow at me. Conceding, I silently opened the door and let them all in. My nerves tightening with everyone that walked in the house and settled themselves in the living room. Nathan, Haley, Lucas, Lindsay. I avoided everyone's eyes as they settled in the living room. Taking a gulp of air, I followed stiffly behind them.

Brooke: Peyton's sleeping, so we're have to stay kinda quiet okay? She'll probably be out for the next few hours...

Everyone nodded in understanding and then the room was engulfed in a suffocatingly awkward silence.

"So," Nathan's voice broke the tense air, "you wanna start explaining yourself?"

Again I sighed.

Brooke: Okay, so. There is a lot more to this than what it seems, as I'm sure Nate has already told you all what happened earlier today. So I need you guys to not interrupt me. I need you to just listen until I'm done explaining and then you can berate me and give me the third degree.

I waited to see nods from everyone before I continued.

Brooke: Alright, so about a month ago, I got a call from a hospital down in Arizona. I was in New York at the time. Peyton had been in a car accident and apparently I was still her emergency contact when they couldn't reach her dad. Somebody T-boned her and-

I started to get choked up on tears remembering how scared I was when I first got Peyton back. The fear, pain, sadness. Haley moved to sit by me and rubbed my arm, trying to comfort me. It took a minute to get myself under control and continue explaining.

Brooke: She- she was really hurt. Her whole left side was pretty messed up. Her leg was broken on the top and bottom. Plus her knee was dislocated. Her whole leg is in a cast. She had a broken rib and some internal bleeding, but the doctor said that it was healing just fine. Her arm was broke, but that cast only goes up to her elbow and her fingers are free to move around.

I let out a shaky breath and looked around at all of the worried faces staring back at me.

Brooke: But the-the worst part, is her head. She has this varying degree of amnesia or something. She-she couldn't remember. I-I was there when she woke up, because they had put her in a coma, and she recognized me, but she didn't remember me...

I trailed off in tears again.

Nathan: What do you mean? How can she recognize you but not know you?

Brooke: The doctor said that she probably remembers the feeling between us, but not any of the actual events that happened. She didn't even know my name! And she couldn't talk or even write!

Lucas: What!? Peyton can't talk!?

Brooke: Not really, at least for right now. The doctor said it's something that she'll have to remember and kind of be retaught. He said the same thing about her writing. She's been doing good though. We've been practicing her writing, and it's coming back, slowly. But it's coming back. And she's heading in the right direction to talking. She- she um, does this thing. It's like she thinks she's talking but there's no noise. She's starting to get her voice back and once in a while, it'll crack through when she's doing the 'silent talking' thing. Plus, she's using her voice by doing those sounds. Her doctor said that those are all good signs. Her making natural sounds, like laughing, or grunting, will help her realize that she can speak. He said she just needs to wake her voice up, that she is physically fine and able to speak.

Haley: So...it'll get better then? She'll recover from this?

Brooke: Yes, mostly. Her memory is the only thing he's not totally sure of. He said he expects her to get at least most of it back, but when it comes down to it, it's all just chance. She could remember everything tomorrow or never get back her lost memories. Plus there's no way to tell what she does or doesn't remember until it comes up.

Nathan: ...like how she didn't remember me...

Brooke: Don't take it personally Nate. She doesn't mean it, it's not her fault...

Nathan: I know that. I know. But if she doesn't remember me, but she does remember you, how much of her memory did she lose? 5 years? 10? Could they figure any of that out?

Brooke: Well...they kinda did.

I hesitated and sighed again before standing up and moving to grab two pieces of paper from my purse. I handed them to Nathan and everyone else moved around him to get a look.

Brooke: Those are her last memories. The one of me and her, I think it's from sometime in the beginning of middle school. Judging from how she reacted to Nathan, I'm guessing it was before we really met any of you. The other one, it um, it's the last thing she remembered before waking up.

The horrified gasps reminded me of how I felt when I first looked at that damned picture, reminding me just how close I was to losing Peyton.

Lindsay: Who is that?

Haley: That's Peyton's mom...as an angel

A heavy silence took over the room as they took all of it in. I took a moment for myself before tackling how we had to help her.

Brooke: Listen, I never meant to keep her from everybody, but the doctor was worried about her getting overwhelmed. That's why we came back to Tree Hill. New York would have been too much for her right now. Right now, she just needs some tender loving care and to be cushioned and cared for. He said once she settles to slowly introduce her back into her old life. She doesn't even have an old life now. Her work fired her because of all of this and she can't stay in her apartment. So I brought her home and right now she doesn't know what happened all of those years ago. She doesn't need to know. She needs us, and she can't remember that she lost us. We're all she has.

Lucas: So how do we help her?

Brooke: We just be there for her. We be her friend, forget all negative feelings from the past. We be the good friends we used to be for her and we let her remember on her own. We introduce her back into who she used to be, help her find herself again. Help her get talking again. Right now all she knows is that me and her are super close, like we were in the time frame that she remembers that picture, and that you are all a bunch of old friends that heard she got hurt and were worried about her. It's okay to explains things to her, but try to avoid any upsetting details. The doctor said to let her do as much remembering as she can on her own. Just...basically redo your friendship. He said to just act how you naturally would, it'll help her remember things between you. She already has remembered some little things between us, so I know that works. But you guys have to play along with all of this. She could lose it if something happens and everything comes crashing down at her at once...

Nathan: ...and then we could lose her again...

I only nod at his conclusion. Everyone sits, tense and thinking for what seems like forever before Haley starts to nod.

Haley: Okay. For Peyton.

Nathan: For Peyton.

Lucas only nods and Lindsay speaks out quietly, "I know I don't have any history with her, and she doesn't even know me, but I'd love to help her in any way I can too."

"Thank you," I mumble out looking at Lindsay. I move my eyes over all of them and feel tears of relief start to flow down my face. "Thank you."