Brooke slowly opened her eyes and winced with pain. Once they got home from the restaurant, Beth went straight to bed and Brooke was yelled at and beaten by Steven. He was angry with her because she never told him that she knew Nathan Scott. She slowly stood up and limped to the bathroom. A nice hot bath and the pain would slowly fade away. Steven and Beth were still both asleep, so she should have a few hours to herself. She closed her eyes.

"Brooke!" Steven called from the bed. She climbed out of the tub, wrapped a towel around herself, so much for the hour she thought to herself.

"Yes dear?" She said walking into the room.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Miserable, thanks."

"Oh, don't blame me for that."

"Yea, because I beat myself last night." She said rolling her eyes and leaning on the doorframe.

"Brooke." He said with a mixture of warning and sadness.

"Steven, I'm tired of this. Tired of walking on eggshells and tired of being beaten."

"Today is important and I refuse to talk to you about this." He stood and handed her a package. She dropped it on the bed and followed him. He always tried to buy her off, give her something shiny to shut her up.

"I'm not the same person, have you even noticed? I'm sure my best friend will when we start talking." He stopped walking and looked at himself in the mirror, he picked up his toothbrush and began brushing his teeth.

"I'm leaving you." She said gaining his attention. He glared at her threw the mirror. "I'm serious Steven. I can't do this anymore." He spit into the sink and spun around to face her.

"If you don't love me anymore fine." He stepped passed her.

"Are you kidding me? A person does not beat someone they love."

"You made me into this crazy man, you make me so angry that I feel like I have to hit you."

"Don't you dare blame me! Did Kelly make you beat her? What about the girl before her. Or even the woman after me?"

"Take this and shut-up." He said handing her the package again.

"I'm not going to be your punching bag, and you can't bribe me." She said throwing the package down again.

"Fine, leave. Abandon Elizabeth just like her mother did."

"Who said I was leaving her?"

"Well you aren't going anywhere with my daughter."

"Our daughter. Last time I checked, I still adopted her."

"Apparently you don't read the fine print."

"What's that mean?"

"It says that if we get divorced that the adoption papers are nil and void." He smiled at her.

"You can't…"

"I can and I will." He said. "So are we still going with the divorce idea?"

"Shut-up!" She said sitting on the bed.

"Ok, so you'll think about it?" He laughed as he left her in the room. "I love you sweet heart." He called over his shoulder. She would call her lawyer first thing in the morning, but right now she had to get ready to see Haley.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Where's Beth?" Haley asked when Brooke picked her up.

"She wanted to hang out at her friend's house. She'll go to the game later." Brooke said pulling onto the highway. "So what do you want to do?"

"Can we just talk?" Haley suggested. Brooke glanced at her strangely but agreed. She pulled into the parking lot of a classy restaurant.

"This place has the best food in the area." Brooke told Haley once they sat down. "So what'd you want to talk about?"

"How's life?" Haley asked chickening out.

"Great! I love Steven and Beth is a wonderful girl." She was too ashamed to tell even her best friend about the life she was leading.

"Brooke, you seem different."

"People change."

"Yea, but you seem to have lost your spirit."

"No, it's in there. I just have a hard time bringing it out." Brooke nervously laughed at herself. What was she doing, Haley could see right threw this.

Haley had to tell her, Brooke was beginning to see threw her, and would be able to see that there was something she needed to say. "I have something to tell you."

"I know Haley. You didn't have to say it, it's obvious." Brooke said.

"What?" How'd she know?

"The baby."

"Huh?"

"Your pregnant. I'm excited for you."

"OH! Yea, I'm almost three months."

"That's wonderful. You deserve a big happy family. How is Tyler taking it?" This brought Haley back to Earth.

"That's not what I was going to tell you." Haley said. Brooke didn't speak just looked at her waiting. "Here it goes. Tyler is Lucas' son and…"

"Haley, please tell me you didn't…"

"Of course not! Brooke, Tyler is your son, and Lucas' son." Brooke dropped her fork and stared at Haley.

"That's a sick joke." The words came out of her mouth so fast.

"I'm not joking. Ethan lied and said he was mine." Calmly Brooke stood up and walked to the host. She whispered something to her and walked out of the restaurant. Haley hurried to follow her. When Brooke turned around Haley saw the tears flowing from her eyes.

"How long have you known?" Brooke asked.

"Since he was about six months." Haley hesitantly told her.

"You have known that he was my son for 8 and a half years, and you hid that from us?" Brooke asked but didn't expect her to answer. "I mean it's one thing to hide it from Lucas because he didn't even know that he was the father, but from me? I was mourning him for 9 years!" She screamed the last part.

"Lucas knows."

"WHAT?!" Brooke saw that Haley was going to say something and she cut her off. "So you three got together and decided that I wasn't worthy enough to have my son?"

"You left…"

"THE STATE HALEY, NOT THE PLANET!!!" Brooke yelled at her. "What gives you the right?"

"I called you, and Luc even came here to talk to you."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I get one phone call from miss high and mighty and then everyone says hmmm, lets just keep the boy." Brooke said sarcastically.

"I was mourning the loss of my child Brooke. You seem to have forgotten that you might have your child back, but mine is dead! I needed time to heal and I left it in the hands of Lucas." Haley said with anger rising.

"So when he came here and found out that I was engaged, he decided he would get back at me by keeping my child?"

"Your gonna have to ask him that." Haley said calming down a bit.

"Does he even know…"The words got caught in her throat.

"Yea, we have never hid a thing from Tyler. He even knows he met you last night." Brooke closed her eyes; she realized that she wanted to hug him, to tell him that he was always in her heart and that she loves him. She didn't need to explain this to her former best friend; they could silently read each other.