The apartment was dark and quiet, everything at a stand still. The alarm clock next to Brooke's bed read 11:45pm and just as the five switched to a six, Brooke heard the lock turn on the front door. Sitting up in her bed, she stared at her closed bedroom door, already getting paranoid. She slowly got out of the bed, grabbing her blow dryer off of her dresser and walked over to the door. She took a deep breath, clutching her hair dryer tight before she opened the door and slowly made her way down the hall. She turned the corner, her 'weapon' raised high. "Hey," she yelled, orange juice immediately thrown on her.

"Brooke! What the hell are you doing," Haley shrieked, one hand over her heart, the other holding a carton of juice.

Brooke wiped her eyes and set her blow dryer down on the island. "What am I doing? I thought someone was breaking in," she muttered, grabbing paper towels in an attempt to dry herself. "But no, it's just you who decided to throw orange juice on me, which ew, you were drinking out of the carton. And oh my god, you have sex hair!"

Haley blushed, closing the carton and putting it back in the fridge. "I do not," she said, trying to flatten out her messy hair.

"Yes you do! You had sex with Nathan didn't you?"

Haley rolled her eyes. "Sorry I frightened and threw juice on you."

Brooke shrugged and began walking towards the bedroom. "It's late." They walk into bedroom, Haley going on about Nathan and how well they're doing and just as she was about to turn on the light, Brooke stopped her. "Don't."

"Why not," Haley asked, not even noticing how Brooke's voice had dropped to a whisper.

"Because you'll wake Lucas. He may sleep like a dead person but the light always wakes him up." Haley looked over at the brunette's round bed to find her best friend sleeping under the red comforter. Quickly, Haley grabbed Brooke by her shirt, pulling her out of the bedroom and dragging her back into the kitchen. "What the hell Haley?"

"Lucas is spending the night?" Brooke nodded and Haley looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What's going on between you to?"

"Nothing," Brooke replied, noticing the look on Haley's face. Sighing, she continued. "I don't know. He's spent the last three nights over here and we've just been hanging out with the occasional make out." She looked up sort of helplessly and Haley laughed lightly.

"You really like him don't you?"

Brooke nodded guiltily. "I know I shouldn't but I do. I really like him Haley. He gets me, he makes me feel safe..." She trailed off, a hand resting on her belly.

Haley grinned widely. "You like Lucas Scott."

"I do," Brooke said with a small smile before yawning. "Okay, bed time."

Silently they walked into the bedroom, slipping into their own beds. Brooke slipped next to Lucas, his arm wrapping around her waist instinctively. "Are you okay," he grumbled sleepily and she smiled as she buried her face into his chest.

"I'm wonderful."


"Haven't seen you in a while," Lucas said as Haley walked into the living room. She slumped down next to him on the couch, resting her head on his shoulder. "How have you been?"

"Great," Haley replied, a smile on her face. "Things with Nathan have been really good." They sat watching the news on the tv until Haley cleared her throat. "How have you been?"

When he didn't answer, she turned to look at him, a smile on his face, his eyes on the girl who had just woken up. She nudged him with her elbow and he turned to look at her. "Fantastic." Brooke sat down on the other side of him and Lucas dropped a kiss on her lips. "Morning."

She smiled, yawning a little and rubbing her stomach. "Morning."

They sat on the couch and watched tv for another half an hour before Lucas spoke. "Do you want to get breakfast before going to school?"

Haley glanced at the clock. "I can't. R and D days suck when you have a zero period."

Brooke laughed before nodding her head. "Let me get ready."

When she left her room Haley turned to Lucas with a smirk on her face. "You like her don't you?"

"Head over feet Hales..."


They sat in the booth they sat in four days ago, everything as it always was. The only difference was that the impossible to win crane machine was getting bare, every little kid walking away with a brand new stuffed animal they won themselves. It made Brooke smile and seemed to make the breakfast she was eating more enjoyable. Her morning sickness seemed to have disappeared, meaning that she would not be seeing the two pancakes she was eating in a half an hour. But the loss of nausea seemed to be replaced with mild cramping. She rubbed her belly to try and soothe the pain as she listened to Lucas talk about the upcoming away game.

Suddenly, she dropped her fork, everything feeling off. She threw her napkin on the table and cast a small smile in Lucas' direction before excusing herself. She walked into the bathroom normally, everything as it always was. The bathroom was cold, the shiny metal stalls making the room seem even colder and she could hear Denny's anthem ( 'I Don't Wanna Wait' from Dawson's Creek; every time she went to Denny's she heard that song) more clearly than when she was at her table.

Only when she got into the last stall in the short row of toilets did she see something very out of place.

Blood.


By the time they reached the hospital, Brooke was already near tears. She hadn't stopped bleeding and she knew something was wrong with her and her baby. She was silent as they walked through the hospital, unlike Lucas who was already demanding a doctor see Brooke now. The nurse at the receptionist desk looked unammused by his antics and told him to take a seat and wait his turn. He was just about to yell at the woman, because she didn't seem to care at all about trying to help them, when he saw Eleanor down the hall.

"Eleanor," he yelled as he grabbed Brooke's free hand, the other on her belly. She turned and smiled at the two, a smile that dropped once she saw the frantic state the teenagers were in.

"What's going on," she asked as she ran up to the pair, already starting to lead Brooke towards an examination room.

"I'm bleeding," Brooke chocked out and Eleanor just shook her head, a comforting smile on her face.

"You and your baby are going to be fine," she reassured the two, her smile not dropping once. She grabbed the first doctor she saw, explaining to him that this was a special patient of hers and that Brooke needed to be seen immediately. The doctor seemed reluctant, but with another gentle smile from the nurse, he followed them to the examination room.


Dr. Voss sighed, his shoulders dropping ever so slightly. He turned off the machine, turing it away from the two teens in some sort of attempt to shield them from what he had to tell them. When he opened his mouth, Lucas was already shaking his head, Brooke's nails clawing into the palm of his hand. He looked over at her, because he can't stand to see the doctor tell them what they already know, Brooke's eyes were shut. Not open and filled with tears or shut tight like he had anticipated, but closed as if she were asleep, a stark contrast to the state she had been in in the waiting room.

If she was asleep, then she could pretend that this was a horrible dream. She wanted so badly to think that, that it was a dream, but she couldn't. It already felt too real, the bleeding she could feel and the baby she could not. So she listened to every single syllable while Lucas wanted the doctor to stop talking. To just stop telling them that it is natural for a woman's first pregnancy to end in a miscarriage and how it was just nature's way of weeding out the weak.

He looked back at Dr. Voss, his face so void of emotion. How could he speak to them like it was nothing? Like it didn't feel like someone had just punched him the stomach repeatedly before kicking him to the ground?

"When can we do it," Brooke asked, surprising Lucas when she spoke. He thought she'd been like him, trying to block everything out. She cleared her throat before asking another question, not even waiting for Dr. Voss to answer the previous. "Could we do it now?"

Lucas looked between the two seemingly calm people almost frantically, searching his mind for the words he'd tried so desperately to block out. "We could do it now if you'd like. Some women find it easier to just get it over with." Brooke nodded, her eyes still shut serenely. "I'll be right back then."

When he left the room, Brooke let go of Lucas' hand, it going to rest on her stomach. She opened her eyes slowly, taking in the bright white room in small increments. "What's going on," Lucas asked cautiously, sounding confused and disoriented. "What... what are you getting done?"

She cleared her throat once more as if it would help her get out the words. "Dilation and curettage." He looked even more confused so she shut her eyes once more. "They have to get everything out of my uterus." He doesn't nod or acknowledge her answer because he doesn't want to here it. It shouldn't be this way, not now, not ever.

They sit in silence, until Brooke took his hand into hers once more. "Lucas?"

"Hm?" He tightened his grip and looked down at her, her eyes shut in that peaceful way only this time there is a tear trailing down her cheek.

"It hurts." Her voice wasn't calm like it had been before, it was shaky and sad and scared and it hurt him to hear her like that.

For the first time since this whole thing has started between them, he doesn't know what to say, and he can't even fathom how he could make everything better.


He stood in the doorway and watched her walk ever so slowly to her bathroom. He flashed back to the day he had finally gotten her to open up to him. She had locked herself in the bathroom and just cried. He was almost afraid of what she would do this time.

When he heard the bathroom door shut and lock, he walked over into the empty bedroom. Instead of hearing her crying, he heard the shower. He turned to Brooke's cork board that was scattered with numerous papers. Tucked in to the bottom right hand corner was the ultrasound they had gotten of their baby barely four days ago. He slumped down on Haley's bed that was directly across from the small picture, staring at what was now gone.


Brooke stood in the shower, scrubbing her body with soap. She scrubbed hard, trying to wash away the worst day she ever had. Her face was soaked with a mixture of salty tears and fresh water. She was crying so hard that she felt like she was going to throw up, her body shaking with each sob. She slowly lowered herself so she could sit in the bottom of the tub, unable to hold herself up any longer. She felt a huge weight on her chest, making it seem like she couldn't breathe, like she was incapable of taking a breath.

Her hand never left her stomach.


Lucas looked up quickly when he heard something break in the bathroom. He stood up, wiping away his fallen tears. "Brooke?" He tried to sound normal but he knew his voice was strained. She opened the door, her dripping wet hair pushed behind her shoulders, her small body wrapped in a moss green towel. Her skin was gray and ashen, her whole face looking like it was drained of life. The fruity smell of her shampoo seemed so out of place now.

She shuffled her way over to her bed, lying herself down on it carefully. He peered in to the bathroom, finding the mirror above the sink shattered. When she had gotten out of the shower, she had glanced into the mirror just before she grabbed her towel. Her belly still bore the shape of a woman about to enter her second trimester and her chest still full with the milk her body had started to produce in order to feed the baby she should have had in six more months. Looking at herself made her sick.

"Do you want anything?" It was a stupid question, he knew that. He just had to say something, anything. It was quiet between them for a while and he thought, or maybe hoped, that she had fallen asleep. Because if she was asleep, then she could be at least some what peaceful. Her mind could be completely blank. But then she turned over, her back facing him.

"I want my baby back," she whispered, her voice hoarse.

He had to leave he room. Hearing her words made him want to cry and vomit and he couldn't let her see him like that. He was supposed to be strong for her, he had to be. He was all she had left.

He stood by the door confused and finally he heard the words he'd been thankful to hear her say. "Just go."

She didn't let any tears fall, not anymore, even though her insides felt like they were being ripped out. She laid in her room, alone, just as she had always been. She laid on her bed, hurting and alone. She no longer had a best friend, she'd ruined that the night she slept with Lucas. She had no Lucas, unable to let him in after going through this. He looked at her like she was the saddest thing in the world and like he felt what she felt. He had no fucking idea what she felt like.

But most importantly, she had no baby. No baby to greet in six more months, no baby to hold, no baby that would rely on her completely for food and life and love.

And now instead of feeling alone, she felt empty.

She glanced over at her cork board, her eyes searching for the ultrasound she knew she placed there. She got up from the bed, going up to the board, still trying to see something that wasn't there. She searched the ground around where the board hung but found nothing.

It was gone, just like her baby.


Hello everyone! I'm sure you all hate me now don't you? sighs I'm sorry but I had to do it. Like I said when I posted this story, this was based off of my friend's dream and I intended from day one to carry it out just as the dream had played out. I have to say I was extremely nervous about writing this chapter and it was probably just as hard for me to write as it was for you to read. I hope I did it justice and that I lived up to my promise Lynn :) And Cami, I'm so sorry I sort of tricked you into reading the story. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter even if it didn't turn out like you all had hoped. Although I think I left a pretty big clue when I named chapter 8 'Everlong'(nothing lasts forever). There's one more chapter left and I'm hoping y'all will return to read it!