"Well I mean…..you're okay, decent, sort of appealing, if guys are into that sort of type," Nathan mumbled out.

"Ok…. Umm thanks?" She responded not feeling the special kind of vibe coming off of him. Moving on her crutches around the room she couldn't help, but notice Nathan not leaving. "Nathan, if I had his birth records to prove it to you I would, but who keeps their brother's birth records? Freak much? The only thing I can tell you is he was doing me a favor," she said before crashing on the couch.

"Favor?" He asked curiously.

"I was hoping you'd just let it go," she laughed knowing she was in for an explanation and because of that she tapped her hand on the couch spot next to her hinting for him to sit down.

Having seen her hand Nathan hesitated before sitting down next to her. It wasn't because he didn't believe her either; it was the fact of being so close to her yet not being able to do anything. "So this brother of yours….."

-------------

Flashback:
"What did they do to you Brookie Cookie?"

"I'm fine! It's nothing," she hissed waddling on her crutches.

"I told you that you shouldn't have gotten involved with that one guy."

"He has a name! Learn it because he's your nephew's father."

"A lot of good you knowing his name has done for you."

"Take that back, now," she ordered choking up swallowing hard and feeling the wetness rising up in her eyes.

"If you would have just gone with Jose, everything would have been fine. You wouldn't be stringing around a kid, you wouldn't be here and you sure as hell wouldn't be responsible for someone's death."

"I didn't call you for you to pick on me and tell me what a disgrace I am. All I need you to do is take this and go away, far away, use it for something," she said irritated while handing over the card. "From then on, I won't need you, so you could stop complaining about me ruining your life. We're not brother and sister, we're not even friends…." She coldly put it before making her way off.
End Flashback
------

"Brent, the closet I think we've ever been was when we were growing up with our nana, but when I was sent back to our parents at six, he stayed with her. God do I miss those days sometimes, I was the munchkin and he was the cool five year older brother. Anyways so before I moved to Beverly Hills he promised me if I ever needed anything he'd be there. Even if he was eleven when he said it there hasn't been a day where he's held back on his word. Trust me, back home I use to call him all the time when I needed something or a stand in for one of my girl friends. So when this whole credit card thing came in, I know the canceling the card was a good idea, but at the same time I knew they'd stop looking here. So instead I just gave the card to him and right about now he should be off far enough to use it so that anyone who's looking will head off in that direction."

"Older brother for protection from the guys, huh?"

Letting out a laugh, Brooke covered her mouth for a second, "please, he wasn't around that much to be the 'if you hurt my sister I'll shoot you with my shotgun' kind of brother."

"Shame."

"I know right! That's why I think you and Lucas are so lucky."

There he was again, Lucas, not even in the room and yet Nathan was threatened by everything he had, in this case the everything was Brooke. "Shame, that he doesn't know what he's missing seeing and talking to you."

"Aww, Nate, the tears are coming really, tear, tear," she teased while putting a finger underneath her eye pretending to wipe her eyes.

"In that case, who wants to hang out with you when they could be hitting it up with Rachel Gattina," he chuckled only when Brooke's teasing had came to end hearing Rachel's name.

"That is just so uncalled for!" She whined chucking a couch pillow at him.

---------

To most people it would have been an early morning wake up call to the time Taylor had gotten in, but to her it was just another day coming home late. With her having to get to her bedroom there was no way around from seeing a sleeping Nathan and Brooke crashed on the living room couch. "Someone have a slumber party?" She groggily asked leaning to ear level to the two.

Shifting a little Brooke woke only to be in eye level with something she didn't want to see every morning when she woke up. Talk about bad breath too. "Good party?"

"Not as good as this little thing you have going on I bet," she laughed having taken another look at Nathan thinking about how pathetic he still was. Scanning her eyes back and forth Brooke realized what it looked like, but Taylor was just wrong. "Forget motel one ladies and gents!" Taylor laughed and made her way to her room even if she was walking crookedly

"I'm going to…." Nathan pointed over to the direction of Taylor's room.

"Yeah," Brooke nodded her hand watching as he got up and took off to her roomies' room shutting the door behind him. "Good morning, Brooke," she said to herself mustering out a small laugh before hearing the knocking from the front door. "Oh please don't be the guy complaining again about Taylor," she mumbled setting her crutch on the floor then lifting herself up carefully to move on in her desired direction. "Coming, hold on," unlocking and pulling off the chain to the door she glanced at none other then her Broody boyfriend. "If I could hug you normally right now I would," she giggled happy to see him.

"Did I wake you? I was going to try to get Taylor to open up."

"No, she beat you to it."

"So I got up this morning, did the usual stuff, then got into my car thinking about this really pretty girl, who's gotten into a bad habit of not showing up at school for a few days and I was just wondering if maybe I could change her mind today."

"Pretty girl, huh? Broody how many times have I told you Katie Holmes isn't really a teenager, she's got a kid with old man Tom," she played along.

"Wasn't who I was thinking about, but there are some similarities," he chuckled looking at her.

"So you're old man Tom?" She teased bringing forth a smile.

"What? No," he laughed himself on how silly she could be. "Cheery, I miss seeing you in those hallways, I know I see you, but it's like….."

"Not the same," she finished.

"Yeah."

"Baby bag is underneath the crib stand."

"Brooke?" Surprised on what she had said he questioned.

"Broody, if I change faster then you get that bag and Jason, we're going to have a smack down," she joked moving herself across the ways.

---------

"Everyone knows Nathan is in over his head, over his head, with sixty nine seconds left in overtime, she's on his mind, she's on his mind and suddenly I become a part of his past, I'm becoming the part that don't last I'm losing him and its effortless," Taylor screeched horribly mocking a song.

"Would you just knock it off already? Give it up!" Nathan angrily put it.

"Developing a temper Nathan? Going to hit me? Hit me," Taylor challenged laughing while pouring a drink.

"You're so messed up you can't even see it," Nathan shook his head feeling a little sorry about how bad she had gotten.

"You're so messed up you can't even see it," she mocked taking a sip before spitting it out. "That tasted a lot better a few hours ago," she laughed.

"Whatever," he opened the door up and headed out expecting to find Brooke still there, but all he saw was an empty room.

--------------------

"Aww come on Jason, it's Lucas," Brooke said trying to hush him down from crying. She couldn't hold him so the best she could do was make faces. "We're going to see Karen, you like Karen, come on now," she pleaded.

"Maybe he's sick of me," Lucas chuckled rocking Jason a little bit.

"Don't be silly."

"I'm serious; maybe he suspects his babe of a mom has another man in her life."

"Once again don't be silly. He should have that motherly son connection and know if it came down to you and him I'd drop you like there was no tomorrow," she laughed.

Chuckling once again he shook his head, "you remind me a lot like my mom."

"Well you know they say, sons marry their mothers……" she paused for a second, "eh woah that's a freaky thought."

"Hey, I like you, no one said anything about marrying, and I'm only seventeen."

"Seventeen, I think by the time Jason is that old, I can get on with my life," she laughed entirely serious though.

------------

"What? Is she actually planning on going to class today?" Taylor asked having seen Nathan come back in the room.

"School, shit," he mumbled while going to the window moving the curtain to see the outside. "She couldn't have gone…. Jason was here all night."

"The Scott sleepovers, classic."

"Do you have a comment for every----." He had started before happened to notice Lucas' truck parked in the front along with him opening the door for Brooke with Jason in his arms.

"Ten to one, you're staring at her right now. Stalker much, Nathan?"

------------

"Carl Bard said 'Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending,' now I don't know about you, but like W. J. Slim 'when you cannot make up your mind between two evenly balanced courses of action, choose the bolder' Everything you do today dictates tomorrow and so forth. I know what you're thinking, you're an English teacher standing up there quoting a bunch of dead guys that I could careless about. Yeah, I hear you, but it's what they say that's more important then who they were in today's time. H.G. Wells, 'The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.,' we've all had a bad day, bad game, bad break up, whatever, but have you ever stopped to think about how maybe it was meant to be?"

'"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices,' Albus Dumbledore," Brooke smirked making her way inside of class.

"Ms. Cruise, nice of you to join us."

"I'll be sure to anticipate you in class the next day whenever you get shot," she rolled her eyes at him and took a seat listening to her fellow classmate's whisperings about her.

-------

"Peyton!" Haley called from not too far down the hallway seeing Peyton by her locker getting a chat from Bevin Maskey, Rachel's head minion. Once Haley got there though Bevin had already walked off to report to her so called master, "what was that all about?" She asked curiously.

"Our cheerleaders on the desperate side."

"Desperate about what? I heard Brooke is finally back, what's to be …… oh…." Haley caught on with a light bulb turning on. "Don't they know you're not exactly cheer material," she said putting her fingers up like quotes once she said cheer. "No offense."

"None taken. Just that, my mo----" Peyton started at first, "Anna, she was head cheerleader back in the day. They expect me to recall the cheers she had taught me as a kid and keep up her legend. I could do it yeah, but cheerleading isn't my thing obviously and what legend would I be keeping up? The adoptive daughter one? It doesn't even count," she said slamming her locker.

"Peyton, are you really mad at Anna for adopting you or Ellie for leaving you?"

"What does it matter? Either way it's still just me," and with that being said she was off on her own against the world.

----------

"Haley!" Nathan jogged catching up.

"Aren't you going to be late for practice?"

"Yeah, Whitey yells no big deal, have you seen Lucas though?"

"Umm…. He's probably at practice, Nathan, but you knew that. What is it you really want?"

"A guy can't talk to his brother's best friend?"

"I didn't say that, but…."

"You thought it didn't you?"

"Look Nathan if you're asking me for drug money for Taylor on her behalf I don't have it. I won't get it and ….."

"No, no, nothing to do with Taylor."

"Then what?" She turned intrigued.

"Scott!" Whitey yelled from down the ways.

"Listen, I'll catch up with you later and we'll talk, alright?" He said walking backwards heading in Whitey's direction and away from Haley.

"Okay……"

-----

"Alright, ladies, since poor Brooke is out on crutches for a few weeks, and probably won't make it to be in our competition we're going to have to work extra hard. We may even have a new replacement on the team," Rachel explained to her groupies in the bleachers.

Brooke knew she was going to be out sure, it was understandable, but the replacement thing caught her attention. "Replacement?"

"Oh yeah! Peyton said, no way will she ever start a cheer career," Bevin chimed in while sucking on a lollipop.

"What about that other girl?"

"What other girl?" Bevin asked pulling the lollipop out and then putting it back in her mouth.

"Bevin, how hard is it to find one girl to take Brooke's position? I mean she's a sitting statue right now," Rachel hissed.

"You know Rachel, if you want to talk about something like there not there you might think about during it when there not actually there," Brooke shot out.

"You are like a statue. What could you do in those things? It'll just be a few days before the birds start landing on you thinking that it's a permanent resting spot," she devilishly said then licked her lips.

"You know what, someday you're going to realize how pointless all this is. What difference does it make if you cheer your heart out or go to nationals; you're only as good as you are if you give it all you got. The way you run this ridiculous team you're lucky if you'll ever get noticed. So take your moronic cheers that I could care less about and shove it," she tossed her pom poms over then got up off the bleachers making her way to the door not believing she was giving up the one thing she was ever good at.

Nathan having been on the other side of the door opened up heading to practice, but happened to stand before a tear stained crutches Brooke. "Brooke?"

"Oh hey, Nate, thanks for the door," she said plastering a fake smile on her face and moving out of the gym.

Taking a look at his peers and Whitey about to start practice he shook his head and followed after her. "Hey Brooke, wait up," he called making his way to her.

"Nathan, are you trying to get Whitey to yell at you?" She asked leaning on the wall, "its one thing for Lucas to be excused from practice having to get checked up by the doctor, but it's another for you to get Whitey thinking you're just screwing around to talk to some girl. If you want to talk to some girl, go on and talk to Rachel. Talk to her with her stupid cheers, her stupid team, her stupid….." Brooke rambled on.

"Pretty much stupid everything huh?"

"Exactly! Which is why I'm done, now excuse me. I figure by the time I get home it'll be dark fall," she laughed imagining herself as the turtle in the race between the hare.

"So you're just giving up cheerleading? Like it wasn't important to you?"

"It's not," she bit down on her lip hard.

"You're lying."

"Are not!" She whinned.

"Yes you are, because when you're nervous you bit down on your lower lip and in this case you're nervous about lying about something that really matters to you. You're going to let a pair of crutches and Rachel Gattina get in front of your dreams?"

"Okay Nathan, don't think too much into it, I don't dream of being a professional cheerleader."

"But you've dreamt about winning in it haven't you?"

"Only like a billion years ago."

"So why don't you start now?"

"You're kidding right?"

"The only one that should be kidding herself is you if you think you can't think, create and do a cheer better then Rachel's creation by the time of nationals."

"Alright Nathan, if you've just magically grown this set of brains where do I start?" She asked just playing along not expecting him to have an answer.

"I know a place come on," he shook his finger.

---------------

"Strange with the place being empty I take it," someone had said behind Haley in the studio.

"You have no idea," she said afraid of turning around.

"I have a pretty good imagination."

"Listen Chris----" Haley wanted to start rambling on about how she was wrong, but was rudely interrupted by the sound of his phone.

"One second, kid," he said putting up a hand and flipping his phone to talk.

"Kid?" Haley repeated making a face. Sure Chris wasn't a high school kind of guy, but seventeen and twenty weren't that too far apart.

"Yeah Jessica, I'm working on it. Of course I'll be there. Positive. I got this one. I'm sure of it. Yes, yeah," Haley had heard Chris saying into his phone, but what stung the most was the other woman's name or so she thought. Hanging up he just looked at the girl he left behind, "listen Haley, you have a talent, don't waste it," shortly he put it, but it was an impact of words. "Question is if you brave enough?"

---------

Peyton had gotten in her house and immediately threw her bag on the ground like she did every afternoon, but as she was heading up the stairs to her room she couldn't happen to miss the man in her living room.

"Peyton….."

"Dad?" Peyton asked puzzled on what he was doing home so early.

--------

"How is everything?" Karen had asked having been waiting in the room a long time with Lucas after taking a few tests.

"Mr. Scott you know how hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, HCM, sudden death is prevented?" The doctor questioned blocking out Karen.

"Using beta blockers and calcium blockers, and using antiarrhythmic drugs, having an implantable defibrillator implanted under the skin to monitor the heart rhythm continuously, and automatically delivers a shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm should a dangerous ventricular arrhythmia occur. While it sometimes seems a drastic step, it is much less drastic than allowing a young individual to die suddenly."

"Sounds like you've done your research."

"Doctor…."

"There's one thing though you happened to conveniently leave out. Have you been doing tremendous exercises?

------------

'We're not brother and sister, we're not even friends….' It kept ringing in his head while he was waiting at the bus station. 'We're not brother and sister, we're not even friends….' Looking down at his ticket he had gotten with Brooke's credit card he lifted it up and ripped it in two before getting off the bench and heading inside the station interested in something else.

-------

"The clinic?" Brooke glanced over at the place.

"You're not going to beat her in those crutches so you're either brave enough to work on getting off of them or you're just going to be a bleachers girl. So which is it Brooke? Do you have what it takes?"