Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.

Author's Note: Sorry it has taken me a week to update. School started and I've barely had time to relax, let alone finish off this chapter. So with apologies for the delay, here's the next chapter.

Author's Note 2: Has anyone else outside of me been missing the Nathan and Lucas brotherly moments that have been few and far between in this story? If you have, your wait has finally been rewarded!

Read and review please! After all, reviews make the world go round!

Broken Hearts and Healing Minds

Chapter 24

Nathan stared at Haley in shock, wondering if he had heard correctly. She had just said that she was in love with him, hadn't she? But that was impossible, his brain screamed at him. She was with Tyler. Haley couldn't still have feelings for him. Especially when he still had feelings for her; it was just too unreal. It was like a really good dream. Nathan decided then and there that if this was a dream, he didn't want to wake up from it.

"Nathan?" Haley questioned her brown eyes looking anxious.

"Look, Hales," he said trying to find a way to say this without sounding like a complete ass. He was stunned that she said she loved him and he felt the same way, but they hadn't had a real conversation in months. They hadn't been friends in months. They didn't know each other anymore. And as much as Nathan hated to admit it, they couldn't be together because of it. They needed to get to know each other again and move on from there.

"This is where you say that you don't feel the same way because you've already moved on," she said. "It's okay. I understand."

Haley got up to leave.

"Wait a second! That is not what I was going to say!" Nathan protested.

"It wasn't?" Haley asked raising an eyebrow.

"No," Nathan said firmly. "What I was going to say was that I do feel the same way about you. I still love you, Haley. But think about everything that has happened over the past couple of months. I feel as though I don't know you anymore and I know you have to feel the same way about me. And besides, I really don't think that relationship is best between us right now. Not because of you, but because of me. But I don't want to lose you again, Hales. I don't want to go months without talking to you. It sucks."

"Then what are you suggesting we do?" Haley wanted to know. "I can't change the way I feel about you and I can't keep stringing Tyler along. It's not fair to him and it's not fair to me. It's not fair to you, either, to see us like that when you know that I am still in love with you."

"I know," Nathan said quietly. "But I think, for the time being, that we should just be friends. Get to know each other again and see if we still really love each other. If you want to break up with Tyler, then go ahead. But know that if you do, I won't be able to be with you until I've fully kicked this drug addiction."

"That sounds fair," Haley allowed. "As long as I can be in your life again Nathan, I don't care if we're just friends that are madly in love with each other."

Nathan smiled softly at her attempt at sarcasm. He was glad that she didn't try to force them to be something he couldn't handle right now and just accepted the fact that they needed to be friends for a little while before making the step back to being what they had been.

"That about sums it up," he agreed.

Lucas sat unwillingly down on the hospital bed, ignoring the painful twinge in his knee at the change in position. He didn't want to be locked in another hospital room for hours on end while Dr. Roberts told him that he needed to rest and then proceeded to poke and prod him with needles.

Peyton shot him a sympathetic smile as she took a seat in the corner nearest the bed. She understood his frustrations at being in the hospital probably better than anyone else. However, the smile did little to soothe Lucas's growing anxiety about being here.

Dr. Roberts had told him a couple of hours ago that he had wanted to run some tests on Lucas's heart to determine whether or not the heart surgery had worked. Lucas had a feeling that Dr. Roberts was about to tell him some really bad news.

"Peyton, for the last time, you can go back to Nathan and Haley," he said bobbing his good leg up and down nervously. "You don't need to be here."

"I want to be here," Peyton said fixating him with an annoyed glare. "And besides, how else are you going to get back to the waiting room without my help?"

"I can walk just fine by myself," Lucas snapped. "I managed without you earlier going from the emergency room to the waiting room."

"If you don't want me to be here, then tell me," Peyton said with a sigh. "Because I certainly don't want to be here if you're just going to sit here and bitch me out about it."

"Sorry," Lucas murmured. "I want you here. It's just that I'm—it's not really anything to worry about, but Dr. Roberts ran some tests on my heart earlier. You know, just to check to make sure everything from the surgery worked out okay."

"And?" Peyton asked looking fearful. Lucas understood and felt intensely guilty—he hadn't wanted to worry her about this, which was why he didn't want to tell her in the first place.

"I'm going to find out the results here in a few minutes," Lucas said. "If I'm a jackass to you, it's not you I'm mad at. I'm frustrated and scared as Hell that I have to wait, that something might have gone wrong, that I might not be able to spend the rest of my life with you."

They looked deeply into each other's eyes for a few moments. Up until then, Peyton and Lucas had never really talked about the future or made any mentions to it because they were both scared of losing each other again. Neither wanted to go through the same heartbreak they went through last time they broke up. Lucas felt that if he made any sort of promise to be there in the future, fate would intervene and break them apart and he knew that Peyton felt the same.

An uneasy silence fell over them. Lucas wasn't sure what to say and by the look on Peyton's face, she wasn't too certain either. Though both were used to waiting around to find out if a loved one was going to make it or not, probably a little too accustomed to the fact, this was different. Lucas couldn't exactly put a finger on what was different, but it felt strange. Alien. And he didn't like the feeling.

"I'm sorry to keep you two waiting, but I had a last minute emergency with the Morrison kid that I needed to attend to," Dr. Roberts said as he swept into the room.

Lucas started at the sound of the doctor's voice and the words he said. He hoped nothing had gone wrong with Tyler—he would never forgive himself if something had.

"What happened?" Peyton asked her green eyes wide with worry. Lucas found her hand with his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"He had an unexpected reaction to one of the drugs we gave him," Dr. Roberts said. "But no worries, he's going to be just fine. He'll be released this afternoon to go home. I think Stephen's with him now if you want to go visit him Peyton. I would like to speak with Lucas alone."

Peyton looked in bemusement from Lucas to Dr. Roberts. Lucas merely shrugged—he had no idea what was going on anymore than she did.

Looking slightly hurt and extremely confused, Peyton said good-bye to Lucas with a promise that she would meet him in the waiting room in a few minutes before leaving the room.

"What's wrong, Doc?" Lucas asked as soon as Peyton was out of earshot. "I wouldn't have minded her staying."

"I know," Dr. Roberts said with a heavy sigh. "But unfortunately, you might change your mind after I tell you what's going on. I told you that I conducted some tests on your heart. They came back and the prognosis doesn't look too good."

"What does that mean?" Lucas asked unable to keep his voice from shaking ever so slightly. Did it mean that he had undergone all that pain for nothing? That he had wasted a month and a half of his life for nothing? That he was going to die in four and a half months anyway?

"It means that although the heart surgery lessened the effects of the HCM, the heart condition didn't fully go away," Dr. Roberts said rubbing at his eyes with his free hand.

"What?" Lucas asked dumbfounded.

"You still have HCM," Dr. Roberts said slowly. "But it's not nearly as bad as it was before. Provided you stay on your medication and don't abuse them, you'll be fine."

"How did this happen? You said that if I had this surgery then everything would be fine!" Lucas protested angrily. He still had the damned heart condition that made his life miserable. What sort of sick karma was that? He had done everything he had to right the bad things he had done over the past seventeen years of his life and yet he was still dealt with this? Why? Was it because he hadn't been a better brother to Nathan? Was it because he had killed Ryan? That had been an accident and as for Nathan, Lucas would never be able to forgive himself for that. So why did he still have HCM after the surgery?

"I said that there was a possibility that it might not take away the HCM," Dr. Roberts reminded him. "I'm sorry that this has happened to you, Lucas, but there is really nothing I could have done to prevent it. There was nothing anyone could have done, not even you. You're just going to have to accept that some things happen and there's nothing you can do to stop them."

"Are you speaking of just the HCM or the fact that I nearly got everyone killed two days ago?" Lucas asked bitterly.

Lucas knew that no one was too happy with him right now because of what he had done. Sure, no one was going to come out and say that they were pissed at him because Nathan was okay and no one had died, but Lucas could tell in the way that Stephen had reacted toward him that he was going to be blamed for what had happened to Tyler and Brooke. And Lucas didn't care—he felt as though he deserved it.

"Lucas, it's not my place to judge what happened," Dr. Roberts said. "And I don't. I'm just telling you that being angry about still have HCM isn't going to change anything. You have lived with it before and survived. You're just going to have to learn how to deal with it again. And this time it will be easier because you'll know your limits better then before."

"I'm sorry," Lucas murmured. He hadn't meant to go off on the doctor like that—he was just hurting and more scared than he was willing to admit of having this disease again.

"It's okay, Lucas," Dr. Roberts said gently. "I'll write up a prescription for you so you can get it filled. In the mean time, stay off the knee as much as possible until it fully heals. Even then, don't do anything too stupid like lifting any buildings off of people or carrying heavy things. You don't need any more problems to deal with."

"Okay," Lucas agreed. "May I go see Peyton now? I have a lot to tell her about."

"So you're not going to keep this a secret?" Dr. Roberts asked looking surprised.

"Keeping secrets only hurts people," Lucas said wisely. "Besides, Peyton deserves to know. You shouldn't have asked her to leave."

"Doctor patient confidentiality laws," Dr. Roberts said with a shrug.

"You didn't seem to mind breaking them for Tyler, Stephen, Haley, or Brooke," Lucas pointed out. He shook his head. "Thank you, though, for letting me decide to tell her on my own."

"You're welcome," Dr. Roberts said. "Now I've got some other patients to tend to. I hope not to see you or any of your friends for a long time."

"No offense, but I doubt any of us will be overly thrilled to see you again inside of this hospital," Lucas said as he slowly got off the exam table and leaned most of his weight on his good leg.

"Good-bye, Lucas," Dr. Roberts said.

With that, the doctor turned and walked out of the room, leaving Lucas alone to dwell on his thoughts.

Nathan was bored. Haley had left a little while ago, and after stopping by briefly to make sure he was still alive, Peyton had left too. There had been no news about Lucas or what the doctor's appointment was about earlier that day. There had also been no news about Tyler or Brooke either, both of whom Nathan had heard very little about. Haley had flat out refused to talk about her cousin and neither Peyton nor Haley were very good friends with Tyler.

Nathan was busy channel surfing when the door to his hospital room opened and in limped a very wet looking Lucas. Nathan looked up in surprise at his older brother, shocked by how exhausted Lucas looked with dark circles underneath his red rimmed eyes. He looked as though he had been very upset by something and had been thrown into a swimming pool wearing all of his clothes.

"Luke?" Nathan questioned uncertainly. He didn't know how he was supposed to react to seeing his brother—unsure as to whether Lucas was siding with Peyton on the mad as hell team or with Haley on the I love you team. It'd be slightly creepy, in Nathan's opinion, if it were the latter. Still he wasn't sure if he could handle Lucas being apart of the former either.

"Hey, Nate," Lucas said quietly, walking unsteadily over to the hospital chair that had up until an hour ago been Haley's. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm okay," Nathan said. It was the truth, more or less. He felt as though he had been sat on by a two-ton elephant and it didn't help that his head was aching and he really wanted to take a dose of opium, but at the same time, he was finally glad to be able to think clearly and really see what was going on around him. He had hated being paranoid all the time and the fuzzy feeling he had constantly thanks to the drugs. Another bonus was the fact that he no longer had to worry about Gavin or Jed or any of the other drug dealers coming after him. He could finally get a decent night's sleep, which was something he was in desperate need of.

"That makes one of us," Lucas said with a quiet chuckle. "You look like Hell, man."

"Have you seen a mirror lately?" Nathan retorted.

He noted that while Lucas hadn't been openly hostile, he was still being guarded with his words around Nathan. It made sense. Lucas had probably felt betrayed when he found out that Nathan had been using drugs and didn't know what to expect. Nathan understood.

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm not the one in the hospital bed," Lucas pointed out. "Speaking of which, I've come to spring you. Dr. Lane said that you could be released in a few hours if you promise not to go back to doing drugs and move back into the apartment."

Nathan was smart enough to know that when Lucas said the apartment it meant Lucas's apartment and not the piece of crap that was now buried underneath two thousand pounds of rubble. After all, it didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

"Fair enough," Nathan said eager to get out of the hospital room.

"She mentioned something about going to rehab too," Lucas said a dark look crossing his other wise calm eyes.

Nathan understood that one too. Lucas had gone to rehab three years ago and had come back seriously changed. He had refused to talk about it and had looked as though he had gone through serious hell. He obviously had mixed feelings about Nathan going to rehab, which surprised Nathan.

"You don't want me to go," he commented.

"No, I don't," Lucas said looking anywhere but at Nathan, which annoyed the heck out of the youngest Scott brother. He needed to be able to figure out why Lucas was reacting the way he was—but he couldn't see his brother's face.

"Why?" Nathan wanted to know.

"I made a promise to myself that I was going to save you, Nathan. Sending you away to rehab probably would be the easiest way to do that, but it would feel like I failed you. I'm probably being selfish, but I don't want you to go," Lucas said quietly. "And I believe that you're strong enough to kick this on your own. That you were using drugs because you felt as though no one was there to help you. And that's something I plan on changing and I don't think rehab would help that."

Nathan was shocked by the admission. It made him realize just how much faith Lucas had in him and it was slight daunting to have to live up to it. Nathan finally understood how much of his own problems Lucas took personally and felt ten times more guilty for ever doing that to his brother. Lucas hadn't deserved any of what Nathan had done to him in the past few months and Nathan hated the fact that throughout it all, Lucas was still trying his damndest to help him.

How could I have been such a jackass? Nathan wondered.

"I'm sorry, Lucas," he said. It was pathetic as far as apologies went—he knew that he owed Lucas so much more for what the older Scott had done—but it was all Nathan could offer at the moment.

"Don't be," Lucas said with a shake of his head. "I should have been there for you more than I was. I should have noticed the signs."

"Don't do that," Nathan said harshly. "Don't make this your fault. You weren't the one who forced me to do all that crap."

"If it wasn't me, then what was?" Lucas demanded. "I know it was my fault that you were shot that day on the river court. I know it was my fault that Deb and Dan split up. I know it's my fault that you don't have a father anymore."

"Shut up!" Nathan shouted. "None of that is your fault, okay? Deb and Dan would have ended eventually, I still wouldn't have a father because Dan is an ass, and it was Ryan's fault I was shot! It's also not your fault that I'm an idiot, that Haley rejected my proposal, that I went off the deep end, that we all were in the apartment when it collapsed, or that I freaking attacked you twice! Okay? It's not your damn fault! It's mine!"

Lucas stared at him for a moment. Nathan realized that it was the first time he had ever seen Lucas dumfounded.

"Even still," Lucas said after a few minutes. His face was back to its usual calm, tranquil manner that irked Nathan to no end. "I'm still going to do my damndest to try to save you."

"Good," Nathan said hating the tears that pricked the back of his eyes. "Cause I'm going to need all the help I can get."