Hey ya'll. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. I haven't been able to write this because I've been in the hospital. It's okay, I'm fine now. I had spontaneous pneumothorax... that's doctor-talk for my right lung collapsed. I have terrible asthma and I guess it just caught up with me. Nothing serious now. I'm actually on my laptop in the hospital right now, but I'll be home tomorrow afternoon, so all is good. This chapter took me a while to get done, obviously, but I really like it and I hope you do to. Since I'm lazy, let's just pick "Someone Like You" by Adele for this chapter. It really doesn't have a whole lot to do with this chapter, but I'm lazy. Anyway... yeah, enjoy this chapter!

"Woah! Aunt Brooke did you see that?" Jamie shouted, jumping up and down from excitement. He had just thrown a frisbee to see how far he could get it to go.

"I did, buddy. That was awesome!"

"How do we get it back?"

"Well, we gotta go find it."

"Okay!" Jamie bounded in the direction of the frisbee, but Brooke stopped him.

"Woah there, boy genius! We gotta go together." She said, grabbing ahold of his tiny hand. They started walking to find the frisbee.

"I'm glad you could play today Aunt Brooke." Jamie said, rubbing icecream off his face. Brooke had been poiling him all afternoon.

"Me too buddy." Brooke loved Jamie so much more than anything else in her life. He was the one thing keeping her going.

"Hey, Aunt Brooke?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you're so sad all the time?" Jamie asked, taking another lick of his icecream.

"What do you mean?" She asked, shocked that Jamie had noticed.

"Mama says that you're always sad all the time, and I don't want you to be sad."

Brooke knelt down and looked at Jamie. "Jamie, look at me. I'm okay. I'm fine, I'm not sad."

"You're not?"

"No."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Swear?"

"Swear."

"Swear on Chester?"

"Yes, buddy... swear on Chester." Broke chuckled.

"Okay..." They started wakling again. "Then how come mama says you're sad all the time?"

"Well, that's because I don't get to see you everyday?" She lied to spare Jamie the harsh truth.

"Really?"

"Absolutely." Brooke rubbed her hands through Jamie's hair and smiled.

"LOOK! THERE IT IS!" Jamie pointed at the frisbee. He released his grip from Brooke's hand and ran in that direction. She smiled at his excitement and went after him.

"Let's go play something else, Jame, okay?"

"Okay." He whined.

"Come on, I'll buy you another icecream."

"Okay!" He cheered. They made it back to the center of the park, and Jamie ran for a swing. "Push me Aunt Brooke!" He demanded. She did. While Brooke didn't really have much to do there, it was worht it to get to hang out with Jamie. She looked around the park and saw all the other moms with their kids. She was jealous. Jealous that she couldn't have what they had. When she turned her attention to Jamie, she saw Julian standing by a bench with a camera.

"Stay here buddy, alright?" She said in a daze.

"Okay!" Jamie shouted, still on the swing.

Brooke walked away from Jamie and took slow, delicate steps toward Julian. He saw Brooke coming toward him, but didn't acknowledge her presence right away.

"Hey." She whispered, nervous to be around him.

"Shh." He responded, pointing his camera at a mom who was helping her child go down the slide for the first time. He recorded the scene then shut off his camera. He turned to look at Brooke and smiled. "Sory about that."

"It's alright." She smiled back. "Um, what are you doing here?" She asked, almost blushing.

"Just doing some filming. I don't get to do much of that on set." He said, detting his camera down on the bench. "Cute kid." He said, eyeing Jamie. Brooke turned arouns and saw Jamie chaing after a bird.

"Oh, he's my God son."

"Oh." He said, a little relieved Brooke didn't have a kid of her own, knowing she wasn't with someone. "You're babysitting?"

"Yep. I took him off his parents' hands for the day."

"Oh, that's nice of you."

"Yeah. I kinda wanted to spend the day with him anyway. I love kids."

"Yeah?"

Brooke nodded. "It's kinda what I do."

"Could've fooled me."

"I'm sorry?"

"It's just that I know you've... been through stuff. Sorry if I'm intruding, it's just-"

"No, it's okay. I know that a lot of people know what's been going on with me..."

"But does anyone understand it?"

"No. I'm not sure I even understand it."

"I get that."

"What did you mean, by the way? When you said 'I've been there'."

"When, yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think I know you well enough to let you in on that."

"No?" I thought you knew everything about me." She teased.

"What I know about you, Brooke, is from the eyes of the tabloid writers and from the words of Lucas Scott. Since meeting you yesterday I know that what I thought I knew about you was barely scratching the surface. Besides, anyone can look in your eyes and see that more than one thing in your life has broken the beauty inside of you."

"You figured all that out in one day?" She said, practically shaking, almost crying from emabarrasment.

"Twenty hours." He grinned. "But I can also tell that someone will be able to fix that over time. Hopefully you can do it on your own." Their conversation came to a standstill and just as Brooke was about to respond, Jamie cried out in pain. Without Brooke knowing, Jamie had made his way to the top of the playground, but was pushed off by some bratty kid named Chuck. Brooke rushed to his aide, with Julian following closely behind. Jamie grabbed his knee and continued to scream out in pain.

"Jamie, are you okay?" She asked sweetly, getting down to his level.

"No." He blubbered. Julian could, obviously tell he was in pain and took control.

"Hey bud. My name's Julian. You mind telling me your name?"

"J-James Lucas Scott." He cried, trying to still be polite.

"Okay, James Lucas Scott-" He mimicked "-How old are you, bud?"

"F-five."

"Fiive? Well, that's perfect then!" He said, excited. "Can you hold up your hand for me?" He does. "Okay good! Now I want you to take a finger and put it on your nose." Jamie did what he was asked, and tried to hold back his crying. Brooke watched Julian take charge and couldn't help but smiled. "Alright, now close your eyes... what do you see?"

"Nothing... Dark."

"Do you see any colors?"

"...Yeah..."

"Great, what color?"

"Green." He smiled.

"Do you like green?"

"Yeah." He smiled wider. "And I see little purple dots."

"How do you feel about purple?"

"It's girly." He turned his nose up. Julian chuckled at his innocence.

"Any shapes? Any squiggles?"

"Yeah! They're orange!"

"Good, now open your eyes." Jamie opened his eyes and smiled wide.

"I don't hurt anymore!" He cheered. "Thanks Julian!" He stood up and hugged Julian tightly. Jamie jumped up and went right back to playing.

"That was sweet of you. Thank you."

"Oh, it's not a problem." He smiled.

"No, really, you didn't have to do that."

"I just reacted on instinct, Brooke, it was nothing."

"Yes it was."

"...So, how's Lucas?" He changed the subject fast.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since-"

"Since rehab?"

"Yeah... that was six months ago... I think he's avoiding me.

"I doubt it. Anyone can tell her cares about you a lot... Enough to get you the help you needed."

"Haley's the one that did that for me." She corrected.

"Well, he tried."

"I thought you didn't want to pry." She teased.

"Eh, that's hard to do with you." He smiled. "How have you been, by the way?"

"You're pushy aren't you?" Julian chuckled. "I've been better... but I've been worse too."

"Just one of those days?"

"Nah... today's been a good day... I've just been better."

"I know the feeling."

"...But, hey, I'm six months sober and i'm... getting my life back on track. I'm thinking about moving in with Haley for a while."

"How come?"

"I'm just... I don't know, I guess I'm afraid to be alone at my house. It's safer when I'm with Haley."

"Well, what do you mean by safer? I don't think you feel safer when you're with someone, I think you just stop being afraid."

"If people weren't afraid, they'd never really live."

"A true statement if there ever was one." Brooke smiled.

"You know, you don't have to run from your home to stop being afraid."

"Then what do I do?"

"Have someone stay with you; face your fears."

"Someone like you?"

"Your words, not mine." Julian chuckled. "No, but, seriously... don't run. If you're ever afraid, just call someone over. Anyone that truly cares about you will come." Brooke smiled, almost fawning over Julian. She was about to thank him when Jamie came over.

"Aunt Brooke, I wanna go home." He whined.

"Okay, buddy, we can go home." She turned back to Julian. "Thank you."

"My pleasure. Take care of the kid, okay?" He said, walking away. Brooke smiled again and walked back to the car with Jamie. Jamie turned back to watch Julian leave.

"I like him." Jamie said.

"Yeah... me too..." Brooke smiled.

That's the end of chapter eleven; let me know what you think! ;D