Truth be told…. I've never felt you near before.

Firebluez

Brooke Davis

Haley and I made our way up to the 3rd floor of the hospital. As we entered Nathan's room three cops turned and faced us.

"What's going on in here?" Haley asked suddenly getting panicked.

"Did something happen to Nathan?" I jumped in.

"Calm down girls. Nathan is alright. But were here about another incident that occurred just a couple of hours ago." One of the cops replied gazing down at a clipboard.

"What?" I asked, with intense curiosity.

"Earlier, Mr. Lucas Scott, was being prepped for transportation to the juvenile detention facility. It appears he has assaulted one of the officers and shot the other one with the fallen officers' gun. He then made his quick escape. We found this envelope on his bed, addressed to you. Now I'm only going to ask you once, but did you know about this?" the officer asked, his dark eyes blaring into mine.

"No sir. I had no idea… Is the officer dead?" I trailed off as I grabbed the envelope.

"Luckily no." The officer replied sternly.

I glanced at Haley, and started stuffing the envelope into my purse, she seemed to be in stunned silence. I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Haley? You okay?" I asked.

"So he didn't hurt Nathan?" Haley asked in a zone like trance.

"No." the officer replied.

"Where is he going?" I asked.

"I was hoping maybe you could tell me?"

"Sir, I think they've had enough. Can't you tell they're just as shocked about it as we all are." A girl with piercing blue eyes appeared beside us.

I glanced over at the girl. My eyes drew wide at the stunning model before my eyes. I quickly glanced back at the cop. He nodded his head and excused himself.

"Thanks." I nodded.

"No prob." The girl replied and entered Nathan's room. Haley and I exchanged uneasy glances and followed her into the room.

No one was in the room except for us three. Nicole stood by the large window overlooking the small town. Haley took a seat by Nathan. I stood close by Haley. I'd sneak a couple of glances at Nicole. She wrapped her arms over her amazing chest which I couldn't help but look at. She looked flawless even though she wore jeans and t-shirt. Her hair was picked up in messy ponytail. She reminded me of a Greek goddess.

"How did the surgery go?" Haley asked the stunning brunette.

"Everything went well. They found a lump in his upper and lower temporal lobe. But once they drained the liquid from it, he's good to go. The doctors also treated the big gash on the back of his head, I believe he has 10 stitches. Everything else will get better with time. Now all that's left is for him to wake up."

I could see Haley shaking her head as she nodded.

Suddenly I could feel a heavy gaze on me. I averted my eyes to a pair of blue eyes staring at me.

"So you must be Brooke." The girl spoke.

Heavy tension filled the room. Haley looked at me uneasily. I gave her a small nod to signify that I was ok. Haley stood up and gave a final glance.

"I'm going to get some coffee. Do yall want anything?" she asked.

"I'll take one." I replied.

"No thanks." Nicole replied never taking her eyes off me.

Haley left the room. Leaving me and Nathan's ex girlfriend in the room alone.

"So I heard that guy who shot the cops was your boyfriend." Nicole spoke with a strong confident voice.

"He was my ex-boyfriend." I corrected her.

"The same guy who also shot and put Nathan in the hospital right?" she replied.

I swallowed a big lump in my throat. What was she getting at? Is this some kind of interrogation?

"Yes." I nodded.

"That's interesting." She replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Just what are you getting at?" I replied getting agitated.

She gave me a onceover look and then dismissed me. As if I wasn't worth her time. The nerve of that bitch! I could see a hidden disgust when she looked at me. I began to get a little frustrated.

"These things always happen in hill billy towns." Nicole replied nonchalantly waving away hair from her face.

"Excuse me? What the hell did you just say?" I broke out with a fierce voice.

"Alright. I guess I'll put it to you in laments terms. Redneck boyfriend goes all psycho when redneck tramp dumps him. He goes after Nathan and they both end up in the hospital. Redneck ex-boyfriend shoots the police, and runs away. The end." Nicole finished with a roll of her eyes.

Anger began to boil up in me. All I wanted to do was slap the bitch hard in the face. Who the hell was she to judge me? She doesn't know anything. She didn't know what we've all been through. No idea! Fucking Bitch.

"You don't know anything." I muttered out.

She eyed me with caution.

"What are you even doing here anyways?" I asked.

"Deb called, and told us Nathan was in the hospital. We all came right over asap." She replied looking back at Nathan's sleeping form.

"I know why yall came. I asked why did you come? I mean you're his ex-girlfriend." I replied trying to figure it out.

"Because I was worried about him. Just because things between us didn't end like they were suppose to I'm always going to be there for him. He's all alone in this redneck town and I knew he needed me here."

This bitch was fucking cocky as hell.

Just then the door opened and two guys walked in. Haley followed behind with two cups of coffee. Haley handed me the cup of coffee which I gladly accepted. The two guys made their way over to Nicole.

"Are you Brooke Davis? Like The Brooke Davis?" a curly headed kid asked me.

A big smile filled my lips. "Joshua?" I asked.

He nodded and made his way to me. He gave me a light friendly hug.

"Nathan has ranted on about you. He said you were pretty, but damn! I didn't think he was that serious." Joshua replied showing his white teeth.

I could feel my face blush a little.

"This time I'm going to have to agree with him too." The other kid busted in.

"And this must be Haley right? From this morning? Beautiful! Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk this morning." Joshua smiled giving Haley a hug.

"I think I might have to transfer over here!" the other kid spoke again.

"Sure" Nicole rolled her eyes.

"I'm Bryce by the way Brooke. I mean if things don't work out with Nathan, you should give me a call." The sandy blonde guy gave a small wink.

Joshua gave him a look. Then he turned around to face us.

"So girls how's it going? Getting along with Nicole?" Joshua chuckled as he glanced over at the eye rolling Nicole.

"Is she still being a bitch?" Bryce commented.

"Fuck off Bryce." Nicole blurted out.

"Ahh yes. The fiery goddess exists." Joshua chuckled.

"Don't worry she's been that way since the trip." Bryce added in.

I laughed at the mere mention of goddess. Apparently I'm not the only one that thought so. Yet the ice princess definitely has an attitude.

"I think she has pms." Bryce whispered to us.

Haley and I glanced and silently chuckled.

"You guys are complete imbeciles. Don't you realize that were all here because of her. She caused this!" Nicole raised her voice out loud.

The room filled with dead silence. Both the boys looked back from me to her. I took in a deep breath, and spun on my heels and walked out of the room slamming the door shut. I placed my back against the wall and sunk down to my knees. I buried my head into my hands. Finally. Someone had finally said it. The words I'd been fearing would happen. A gnawing at the pit of my stomach started eating me. Tears fell down my face. I heard the door open and close. I felt the presence of someone sitting next to me. Glancing up I saw Joshua's blue concerned eyes on me.

"Don't pay any attention to her. We all know it's not your fault." Joshua whispered to me, while rubbing my shoulder for support.

"No… she's right. I mean none of this would've happened if.."

"Don't say that. Nicole is really upset by this whole situation. She's never seen Nathan in the hospital in her entire life. When she sees him, she sees him as Nathan, the invincible guy who's tough. This has really frazzled her. Me too." His tone became softened.

"I think it's done that to everyone." I nodded wiping away my tears.

"Yeah, besides she's also a little jealous too." Joshua added in with a chuckle.

"She's jealous of me?" I questioned.

"You're kidding right? She totally is! I mean granted she's still in love with Nathan but I mean all he ever does is talk about you."

A huge pang hit me.

"Wait… Back up. What do you mean she's still in love with Nathan?" I breathed out.

He immediately bit his lip and lowered his glance as if he hadn't meant for that to slip out. I could feel my world starting to spin around. Just then Haley ran out of the room. "Brooke! He's awake!" Haley squealed.

Joshua and I got up within a second. We both quickly darted into the room after Haley. I let out a huge smile as Nathan reached for a glass of water beside his bed. "Nathan!" I smiled as I ran up to his side. Once he took a small sip, Haley grabbed the cup from him.

"Brooke!" he smiled with delight. I couldn't help but stare at his face. He looked a little pale around the face, but nonetheless was still amazing. A huge wave of relief flooded through me as he was awake. His eyes traveled away from me and glanced around the room. His eyes grew wide as they spotted the three people from New York.

"You guys are here?" Nathan gave a huge smile.

"Hell yeah! We had to see you!" Joshua smiled as he stood beside me.

"It's great to see you!"Nathan nodded.

"Anything for you Wolf man." Bryce smiled from the foot of his bed.

Nathan gave a low raspy chuckle until he spotted Nicole, who had joined Bryce at his side.

"Nicky? How are you?" He asked.

"A lot better now that you're awake." She gave her 1st smile. A huge wave of jealousy came over me. She had a gorgeous smile. I couldn't help but picture the two of them together. But I somehow swallowed the disturbing image and concentrated on the fact that he was awake.

"How are you feeling?" Haley broke in.

"Not my best for sure. But happier that everyone is here. Where's my mom at?" he asked looking around.

"She went on a coffee run. She should be back any minute." Nicole spoke as her eyes lit up when she looked at him. I clenched my jaw. I wanted to jump across the bed and rip her face into shreds at how fake she was being. She's looking at my guy. My guy!

I drew in a big breath of air. Technically he's not my guy. I mean we agreed that we'd stay friends until we worked out our problems. So technically were both still single.

"Cool. So how's Lucas doing?" Nathan asked uneasily.

Everybody started glancing around at each other with unsure eyes. Nathan took notice and eyed someone till they looked him in the face. "Will somebody talk to me? Tell me what's going on?" he asked.

"Brooke?" he whispered to me.

"Alright… " I nodded and brushed my hair away from my face.

Like the new characters? Think they will cause some drama? Let me know… Review plz!