Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.
Author's Note: The quote really has nothing to do with the chapter, but it sounded good, so I put it in there. It's in one of my stories that I'm writing outside of FanFiction.
Overdose of Pain, Onslaught of Reality
Chapter 47
Life is short. Some lives are shorter than others, while others are long and seemingly endless. But it's not how long your life is that matters. It's what you do in your life that matters. It's the kind of person you are in life. It doesn't matter whether you are the poorest person alive or the richest. It all depends on the person you were in your life.
"Family of Lucas Scott?" the doctor called out. Nathan jumped at the sound of the doctor's voice, before quickly walking over to him. Peyton followed close behind and soon, Keith, Haley, and Brooke joined them.
"We're Lucas Scott's family," Keith said, his brown eyes full of worry. "How's my nephew?"
"He's not in good shape," the doctor said, his eyes sad. "He had multiple stab wounds, a couple of fractures in his lower leg, and he cracked his skull. He may have amnesia as a result of that. He also had to have stitches in his head because of the glass wound there. Furthermore, he shattered his elbow and sprained his wrist. On the same arm, he broke his pinky and his thumb. We had to replace the bone in his ribs with a bone from somewhere else, but he should have no long term repercussions."
"Is he going to live?" Peyton asked, looking as though she were about to faint. Nathan quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"We'll know more tomorrow morning when the MRI results come back," the doctor said. "For now, he's in recovery. I'll send a nurse out when he's moved into ICU."
With that, the doctor turned and went through the swinging doors, leaving the rather large group to discuss what he had just said.
"Oh my god," Peyton whispered, breaking the strained silence in the group.
Haley sniffed hard, uncertain of what to say. Her best friend was lying close to death in a hospital bed. What the hell where you supposed to say to that?
"It's going to be okay, Peyton," Nathan promised, trying to soothe the blonde girl. However, he knew it was futile. The only was she was ever going to calm down was if Lucas woke up… which wouldn't be for a while.
"We should probably sit down," Keith muttered. "She needs to, anyways. So do you, Nate."
"I'm fine," Peyton bit back. "I just want to see Lucas."
"Well that's not going to happen until the nurse comes out and tells us he's out of recovery, so you might as well sit down and not put yourself back in a hospital bed," Keith growled. Peyton glared at him, obviously contemplating defying him.
"I've got to go call my father," she said instead. "This will be all over the news and I'll doubt he will be calm enough to understand any reasoning once that happens."
"You want me to come with you?" Nathan asked, hoping to finish the conversation they had earlier.
Peyton shook her head, knowing Haley could use him more than she could.
"Stay here. I'll be back."
With that, she walked away, heading for the closest pay phone.
Peyton returned an hour later, feeling more exhausted than she ever had in her life. Her arm burned like hell and all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep. But she wouldn't allow herself to do that until she knew that Lucas was okay.
Nathan looked as though he were about to comment on her appearance, but decided against it when he saw the angered look in her eyes. Peyton sat down next to Keith, who was sitting the farthest away from Nathan and took a random magazine off the table.
She stared at it without really seeing the pages as she flipped listlessly through them. Just a few more hours, she told herself. He'll be fine. Just a few more hours and you'll see.
Nathan sat in one of the cold hard plastic chairs, his arms wrapped around Haley who was sitting in his lap. As overjoyed as he was to have Haley with him again, it hurt him to know why they were.
Sighing, he gently placed his chin on Haley's shoulder and closed his eyes. He heard Haley giggle softly as she saw him, but refused to open his eyes. It was probably the worst thing he could do.
Lightning lit up the sky, illuminating a crumpled figure lying on the brick ground in the alleyway… Lucas calling out for Peyton as the bricks of Henry's fell from their frame… Ryan pointing a gun at Lucas…
"Nathan!"
Haley's sharp voice brought Nathan back to reality with a start. He took in a couple of deep breaths, trying to get himself under control.
"You okay?" came Keith's concerned voice. Nathan blinked a couple of times, not really understanding the question.
"Yeah," he said absentmindedly. "Sleeping is just a really bad idea."
Keith, Peyton, and Brooke all returned to what they were doing, while Haley still looked at him with concern.
"You sure you're okay?" she asked quietly. "You were yelling."
Nathan nodded again, swallowing hard.
"I just let my mind wander to what happened in that alleyway," he responded, looking away from Haley's face. He didn't want to share with her the horror he had felt when he had gotten his first good look at Lucas… or the horror of the gun pointed at him. It was just too daunting to think about.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Haley asked gently, shifting her weight so she was now facing him.
Nathan felt bad for her, he really did. She had to put up with so much lately, and he knew that most of it was his fault. How he ever could have left her in the first place, he had no idea. She was so kind and caring. It made Nathan fall in love with her all over again.
"I don't want to scare you anymore than you already are," he said softly, gently freeing one of his hands from hers and using it to stroke her face gently. "What happened was awful."
"I know, Nathan," Haley said quietly, taking his free hand in both of hers. "But I want to help you through this. You understand that, right? I'll do whatever you need me to do to make that happen."
"I love you so much, Haley," he murmured, resting his chin on her head. "Right now, the only thing that is going to keep me sane is holding you in my arms."
"I think I can manage that," Haley said, trying to bring a smile to his face. She succeeded. Nathan smiled softly and leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips. "I love you, too," she added. Her eyes darkened slightly as she caught sight of Brooke staring gloomily at them.
"Always," Nathan said, his voice barely above a whisper. He was drifting off to sleep again.
"And forever," Haley whispered back. She kissed him once again as he closed his eyes. Within a few moments, he was snoring softly.
Brooke felt miserable as she sat on Keith's other side and played nervously with her cell phone. Though she would never admit it, she was extremely jealous of the connection Haley had with Nathan and the connection Peyton had with Lucas. Both girls had found their true love in her former boyfriends. It made her angry and feel unwanted, both emotions she tried her hardest not to feel.
Brant was a great boyfriend for her, though. He was funny, handsome, and made her laugh. He also seemed to have an air of mystery around him, which had attracted Brooke to him in the first place. Brant, in her opinion, was the world's perfect boyfriend. Up until tonight, anyways, when he had found himself landed in jail for being near a bar fire and was suspected of arson.
Wait a minute, Brooke thought. There was only one bar fire in Tree Hill tonight, and that was Henry's. Could Brant be Ryan?
At first, her conscious answered with a resounding no. Brooke was willing to let it go at that, but there was something that kept nagging at her. First of all, Brant only seemed to appear on the weekends. Even then, it was only on weekends he didn't go out of town with his parents. Those same weekends, though, were wrestling tournaments at Tree Hill High School, though, and as far as Brooke was concerned, Brant was not a wrestler.
The only way that Brooke knew of how to tell whether Brant was really Ryan or not was for someone to describe him.
"Peyton," she hissed. Nathan had fallen asleep, as had Haley. Keith was staring out into space and didn't even blink when Brooke had called Peyton's name. Peyton, however, was fast asleep as well, using her uninjured arm as a pillow and a rather ripped up jacket as a blanket.
It was only then was Brooke aware of the time. It was three-thirty in the morning and they had been sitting in the hospital for over an hour already.
That was when the nurse decided to appear.
"Family of Lucas Scott?" she called.
It was as if they had been awake all along. Haley, Nathan, and Peyton instantly got up and walked over to the nurse, followed closely by Keith. Brooke was the last person to wander over.
"We're the family of Lucas Scott," Keith said for the second time that night.
"I'm sorry, but only immediate family allowed," the nurse said, glancing over the rather large 'family'.
"Peyton's his fiancée, I'm his brother, this is his uncle, and this is my fiancée. Brooke is my fiancée's cousin," Nathan said, pointing out everyone individually. His voice was fierce. "We would like to see my brother."
"He's in room 463," the nurse said, shrugging her shoulders slightly to show how nervous she was. "It's this way."
The nurse led them down the hall and up a flight of stairs. A sign at yet another nurses' station read: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Rooms 400-499.
"Room 463 is the first door down that hallway," the nurse said, pointing towards the right. "If there are any problems, feel free to hit the 'call' button located on the side of Mr. Scott's bed."
Peyton followed Nathan, Haley, and Keith down the hallway to the room. As usual, everything was too white, too clean, and smelled too fresh. Tree Hill Memorial was a brand new hospital, but it was exactly like all the other hospitals. Clean, white, and full of sick people and overly helpful nurses.
"Peyton, I think you should go in first," Nathan said quietly, seeing her longing look at the closed door. "We'll wait out here."
Peyton nodded, too anxious to respond otherwise. She desperately wanted to see Lucas and make sure he was going to be okay. Then she never wanted to leave his side again.
Slowly, she pushed open the door to the room and stepped inside.
The room was quiet, except for the steady beeping of the heart monitor. This comforted Peyton, for it meant that Lucas was still alive and fighting.
She walked over to the chair beside his bed and sat down, taking his hand as she did so. Peyton noted that he was mostly covered in white gauze and plaster and that he was barely recognizable, save for the tuft of dirty blonde hair poking out underneath one of the many white layers.
"Hey, baby," she said, knowing she was free to go to pieces now. No one would stop her. "I know you're probably going through a lot right now, but I need you to wake up. I love you so much, Lucas, and I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for breaking up with you, I'm sorry for being such a coward and not telling you about Ryan in the first place. And most of all, I'm sorry that I let him intimidate me into breaking up with you. That was the worst thing I could have ever done."
She was now weeping freely and squeezing his hand for dear life. Peyton felt that if she let it go, then Lucas would die. She couldn't accept that. She wouldn't accept that.
"I know it's a lot to ask," Peyton continued, not even bothering to wipe away the tears that were falling freely from her face. "But it's been sort of our thing. One of us ends up in the coma and wakes up for the other one. I was kind of hoping that you could do that for me now. I need you so much, Lucas. I can't live my life without you. Please."
Peyton pushed herself back in her chair until she was able to lean her chin on Lucas's bed and keep holding on to his hand with her own. Without meaning to, Peyton slowly drifted off to sleep. She would have no nightmares about the attack that night.
Nathan saw Peyton fall asleep at Lucas's bedside and decided now was a good time as any to go in as well. He nudged Haley, who was drifting off against the wall and nodded for her to go in with him.
"Are you sure?" she whispered. "I don't want to intrude on your time with him and Peyton likes having her own private space with Lucas, and I can wait if you want me to…"
Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by Nathan kissing her passionately on the lips.
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk way too damn much?" he whispered, not wanting to disturb Brooke or Keith, who were now solemnly staring off into space in the two hospital chairs outside of the room.
"Someone might have mentioned it once a long time ago," Haley admitted, blushing deeply. Nathan kissed her again before pulling her to her feet.
"Come on. We might as well go say hi to him at least before Peyton wakes back up and wakes him up," he said, earning a faint smile.
"Is it too soon to say that I love you more than anything in the world?" Haley whispered as she followed him inside. "Because it's the truth."
"I love you too, Hales," he whispered back, before turning to face Lucas.
Nathan felt his breath catch in his throat as he set eyes on his older brother.
He had never seen anyone look more defeated in his life or in so much pain. Even unconscious, the visible parts of Lucas's face were scrunched up in pain and he seemed to have hunched his shoulders to try and alleviate it.
"Lucas," Haley breathed. Nathan could see the tears in her eyes as she walked over to his other side and sat down. Nathan walked over and stood behind her chair protectively, even though he knew no one was going to bother them here.
"He's going to be okay, Hales," he whispered into her ear. "I promise. Nothing's ever going to happen to him again."
"I wish I could think that was true," Haley murmured back. "But seeing him like this… I don't know, Nathan. It's just too hard."
She turned around in the chair and buried her face against Nathan's chest. Nathan rubbed her back gently, trying to calm her down as her petite body wracked with sobs.
"Shh, Haley, it will be all right," he whispered, gently picking her up and walking around to the other side of the chair to sit down with her in his lap. "I promise, Hales. He's going to be okay."
Peyton woke up two hours later, blinking against the harsh glare of the hospital lights. Across the bed, Haley had fallen asleep on top of Nathan, who was staring intently at the injured person on the bed.
"Has there been any change?" she asked, yawning hugely. Nathan shrugged.
"His lips keep moving, as if he's trying to say something," he whispered, not wanting to wake up Haley. "I've seen his eyelids flutter twice now."
"Then he should be awake soon," Peyton said hopefully, glancing down at Lucas's face.
With a gasp, she noticed two beautiful crystal blue eyes staring back up at her.
Lucas could barely breathe, even though he so desperately wanted to. Not breathing would mean that he was giving up, that he wouldn't be given another chance with Peyton, and that Ryan had won. He couldn't accept that. He wouldn't accept that.
And with that thought in mind, Lucas inhaled a deep breath, nearly crying out in pain as he did so. With much more effort, he struggled to open his eyes. All of his pain seemed to go instantly away as he saw those green eyes staring worriedly at him.
"Peyton," he breathed.
Yet another cliffy to a filler chapter… hmm… I think I have earned the right of cliffhanger queen. What do you all think?
Congratulations to Lostand1TreeHillfan who figured out who Brant really is! You get a nice big hug.
Read and review and I might be tempted to update again tonight. If not tonight, then maybe tomorrow.
