After leaving the Cohens house Brooke heads to her home across the street and cleans herself up.
Once she's ready to face the day and right the wrongs she did the previous day Brooke first heads over to Peyton's home and apologizes to the girl for her interference with Lucas and takes her shopping to get some clothes for a college party she managed to get them invited to.
Peyton is immediately on board with this, having made a mess of things with Lucas last night when he told her he wants everything with her and she said she's not interested in such a serious relationship.
After shopping with Peyton Brooke sets up a serial date for Haley and Nathan as an apology for her lie yesterday.
Once she's done this she heads back over to the Cohens house intending to invite Ryan to the college party.
"Brooke. What can I do for you?" Kirsten asks when she opens the door.
"Uhm I'm looking for Ryan." The brunette says.
"He's working. He's at Keith Scott's garage." Kirsten informs her.
"I see. OK, I'll just check in another time then." Brooke says and turns around to leave.
"Brooke. Please don't play around with Ryan. He may be strong and serious, but he has had so many bad experiences in his life already I don't want him to have to go through more." Kirsten asks of the girl.
"I... just wanted to thank him." Brooke says blindsided.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I just get a little overprotective sometimes." Kirsten apologizes awkwardly.
"It's fine. I think it's great that he has such a worrisome mom, god knows mine isn't like that." Brooke tells her.
"Well anyways, maybe I'll see you around." Brooke says, waving to the woman while heading back across the street.
|3 hours later|
Brooke and Peyton are at the college party and Brooke starts to flirt with a handsome teen while Peyton walks around a bit before ending up in the room of a guy hearing some of her favorite music.
The two talk a bit while listening to his albums when he insists she drinks something to lighten up a bit and slips her a roofie.
Brooke went looking for Peyton when the guy is trying to take advantage of the drugged blonde, but Peyton manages to accept Brooke's call on her cell and the brunette hears the music along with Peyton's struggle against someone. She finds the room where the music is coming from and asks one of the guys around to open the door, seeing the guy trying to force himself on Peyton.
Brooke rushes to her defense and pushes him off Peyton, bringing her outside to safety, but Peyton is constantly about to doze off, worrying Brooke.
"Lucas. It's Peyton, she was drugged I need your help. We're on Duke campus please come quick." Brooke says while crying with her cellphone pressed to one cheek while holding Peyton in the other arm.
"What? calm down. Ok, I'm on my way." Lucas answers, freaking out at the news himself and hangs up.
"What's up?" Ryan asks worried at his coworkers' hysterical tone of voice.
"It's my friend someone drugged her. I got to go." Lucas says, rushing to his truck.
"I'll come too." Ryan says, getting in the passenger seat and the two boys rush off to Duke campus, where about 10 minutes later they pull up on the college dorms steps and see Brooke holding the intoxicated Peyton with an older girl sitting by them, checking on Peyton.
"My god Peyton! What happened Brooke?" Lucas asks worried, looking over the nearly unconscious blonde.
"This guy, he drugged Peyton. I got her out of there but she can't stay awake." Brooke cries.
"We need to know what he gave her." The med student chimes in from beside Brooke.
"I'm a med student. If I know what he gave her we can see if she's in danger."
"Then let's call campus police." Lucas says, grabbing his phone.
"We can't she drunk alcohol and will get in trouble." Brooke says.
"Alright Brooke, you show me who the guy was. Can you stay with Peyton?" Lucas asks the med student and Ryan.
"Why don't you stay with Peyton man. I'll get you the information what he used." Ryan says, taking off his greasy work jacket, being left in dirty oil-stained pants and a wifebeater.
"Come one, show me where he is." Ryan says, starting to walk up the stairs and looks back at Brooke, who looks at Lucas for advice.
"Go with him. I'll take care of Peyton." Lucas tells the brunette.
"Alright. I'm coming." Brooke says, hurrying after Ryan.
Minutes later the two are walking through the crowd of the party, with some guys trying to hit on Brooke who is getting pulled through the crowd by Ryan.
One guy cops a feel and Ryan hears Brooke yell from behind, looking back he sees the drunken teen with his hand on the upset girl's ass.
Ryan quickly pushes him away with enough force to send him into the wall behind him.
"Sorry, I was too focused on finding that guy." Ryan apologizes and holds her close while pushing past the partying guys and girls until Brooke stops at a door, saying "In here."
"OK, just take a step back." Ryan tells her gently, brushing over her arm calmingly and bangs on the door loudly.
"Piss off." They hear a reply from inside.
Ryan takes a step back and throws himself against the door, busting into the room with a loud crash.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" The goth guy inside complains.
"Tell me what you put in her drink and we don't have to do this the hard way." Ryan warns him, walking over slowly until being face to face with the slightly taller teen.
"I don't know what you're talking about. She just drunk too..." the guy replies but before he can finish his sentence Ryan punched him in his side and follows up with a hook right in his face, breaking his nose out of which blood starts pouring out.
"Fucker. I'll ki..." the goth curses in pain, but before he can finish his threat Ryan knees him in his stomach and pins him against a wall.
"What did you give her?" Ryan asks angrily, on hand at the teens throat and the other reared back for another punch.
"Over there, in the box. You're crazy." The guy groans in pain, pointing at a wooden box.
Ryan drags him over and searches the box with his free hand, finding the roofies he shows them to the guy, who nods his head.
"Just pray she's going to be alright." Ryan says, taking one pill and a half-filled cup nearby before forcing the goth to swallow his own rape drug and then throws him down next to the bed, walking out with Brooke, pulling her along by her hand, making sure to keep her close to himself.
"Here." Ryan says, handing the roofies to the med student once they're outside, Brooke and Lucas looking at his blood splattered wife beater with some fear.
"She's going to be fine. Just make sure to keep an eye on her during the night in case she throws up." The girl tells them.
"Thanks. We owe you." Ryan thanks the girl, who makes her way back to the dorm after giving him a nod.
"What happened in there?" Lucas asks, staring at his bloody wifebeater.
"Doesn't matter. We got the pills." Ryan says and wipes some blood off his knuckles into the top.
"Let's go take her home." Ryan says.
"Alright. I'll take Peyton, can you give Ryan a lift Brooke?" Lucas asks, already lifting the blonde up in his arms and carrying her to the truck.
"Sure." Brooke says nervously.
"Let me drive. You're too shaken up." Ryan offers while they approach her car.
Brooke wordlessly hands him the keys and they enter the vehicle.
"You know where she lives right?" Ryan asks, starting the car.
"Of course, she's my best friend." Brooke says.
"Alright." He says and starts their drive to Peyton's home.
"I scare you huh?" Ryan asks after they drove for 5 minutes in silence.
"N...No why should you?" Brooke asks stammering slightly.
"I just snapped sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, just him." Ryan says.
"Why were you so brutal? You don't even know Peyton." Brooke asks.
"Because of the circumstances. I have already lost people I care about because of drugs and drinking." Ryan says, sounding exhausted.
"Sorry." Brooke says.
"Not your fault and I chose to help Luke and his friend. I didn't even know you were involved." Ryan says, bumping her shoulder comradely.
"So, you seemed like you knew how to throw a punch." Brooke says.
"Well, I didn't grow up in the same neighborhood as I'm living now." Ryan tells her.
"Yeah, your mom mentioned you had a rough past." Brooke mumbles.
"When did you talk to Kirsten?" Ryan asks surprised.
"This noon. I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday. Looks like you have a knack for helping people huh?" Brooke says.
"Don't change the subject." Ryan laughs lightly.
"Fine. She asked me not to play around with you whatever that means." Brooke says.
"Doesn't matter. Thank you for trusting me even though I scared you." Ryan thanks her.
"I at least owe you that much with everything you've done for me." Brooke says, a beautiful smile on her lips.
"I carried you home from a party, let's not make a big deal about this." Ryan chuckles.
"You carried me?" She asks surprised.
"Yeah, you passed out on me on the way to your house." Ryan tells her and glances at her, seeing her sniffling and cry.
"Don't worry. Lucas will take good care of her." Ryan tells her.
"I know. That's why I called him and not someone else." Brooke says.
"I see. So you and Lucas?" He asks.
"No, not that I'm not hoping for it, but he was totally into Peyton but she shot him down." Brooke replies, wiping away her tears upon seeing the red tow truck from Lucas already parked in front of the Sawyer's house.
"And here we are." Ryan says, parking behind Lucas's truck.
"You should come in and stay the night." Brooke invites him, looking at the house as though she could collapse any moment.
"Alright. I don't feel like walking home now anyways. I'll be inside in a bit, let me just call the Cohens first." Ryan says, stepping out of the car with Brooke and hands her her keys back.
"OK. Lock the door behind you." Brook says, already walking to the front door.
"Hi Sandy. Yes I know I should've been home by now. There was an emergency, but don't worry I'm fine. I will stay the night at a friend's place though. Yes Sandy that friend is female but Lucas is also here." Ryan says, calling his foster father.
"Yeah I'll be fine. See you tomorrow." Ryan says, hanging up.
After finishing his call Ryan enters the house and locks the door behind himself. Once inside he looks around for the others and follows their voices upstairs, finding Lucas standing at the foot of Peyton's bed with Brooke looking for something on her bestie's computer.
"Any idea if she's doing better?" Ryan asks, stepping inside and leaning against the doorframe.
"Not really, but she seems to be resting now." Lucas says.
"I found an article on the drugs. It looks like she might have short term memory loss, which might not even be a bad thing in her case. Bit yeah from the looks of it she should be fine. At least I hope so." Brooke says guiltily.
"What's with the guilt Davis?" Ryan asks.
"I brought her to the party as an apology for yesterday and once again I screwed up." She cries.
"Brooke, it's not your fault. You got her out of there, didn't you?" Lucas encourages her, hugging the distraught girl.
"Luke's right. If I invite you to a restaurant and you'd get food poisoning, it's still the cook's fault." Ryan agrees.
"Well, I'm gonna go look if there's coffee in this place. We'll probably need it." Ryan says and heads downstairs to the kitchen.
"What exactly happened in there anyways? After you two came back you looked worse than before." Lucas asks, looking to where Ryan just disappeared from.
"It's nothing I was just surprised by Ryan's hands on approach." Brooke says quietly.
"Hands on eh? Yeah he can throw quite a punch." Lucas says.
"How do you know?" Brooke asks surprised.
"This drunken customer wanted to beat up Keith and Ryan laid him out flat with one punch." Lucas tells her.
"Anyways, what are we gonna do with Peyton?" Brooke asks.
"Stay awake and watch her. I'm happy to do it and you can get some sleep if you want."
"No. I feel like I need to watch her as well. Plus I'd rather stay up and talk with you if that's OK for you?" Brooke asks.
"Sure." Lucas says with his usual mysterious smile while rubbing her arm.
"Coffee's brewing. So who'll take first shift?" Ryan asks standing back in the doorway of Peyton's room.
"Lucas and I will stay up the whole time. You can rest if you want." Brooke says, not even looking at him, instead being focused on Lucas's eyes.
"I'm gonna take you up on that. Where's the bathroom? I should probably wash out the blood." Ryan says, taking off his wife beater.
"Down the hall on the left." Brooke says.
"Alright. Thanks." Ryan says and heads to the bathroom. Once there he soaks the top in water and wrings it out, watching the red-pink fluid circle down the drain and gets reminded of habing to do this before when he beat up Marissa's ex for picking on Seth.
"Man I promised the Cohens I'd avoid this and here we are 2 weeks later in the same situation as before." Ryan sighs continuing to wring out the top.
"Well, what's done is done." Ryan sighs and leaves the bathroom, stepping back into Peyton's room.
"Lucas is getting the coffee." Brooke informs him when he sees only her, sitting at Peyton's side on the bed.
"OK. Sorry again for scaring you." Ryan apologizes and lies down on the floor, facing the ceiling, the wooden floor being rough on his back.
"Are you sure you want to sleep like that?" Brooke asks him with a slightly lifted mood.
"You're right. I'll take post on the couch downstairs." Ryan says and walks past her after giving her a brief side hug, adding "good night and don't blame yourself."
"Thanks for your help." Brooke replies.
"Don't mention it." Ryan says, looking sad and heads downstairs to the couch.
"What's with him?" Lucas asks coming up with the coffee moments later.
"Stuff from his past I think. But shouldn't you tell me? You're the one he knows at school." Brooke says.
"I only bumped into him at Keith's garage a few days ago." Lucas tells her, shrugging his shoulders.
The two then continue to chat for a while before Brooke's adrenaline goes down and she gets sleepy.
"Brooke. I got her, you should go to sleep." Lucas tells her after Brooke's 4th yawn.
"Alright." Brooke agrees, barely able to stay awake and is about to lie down next to Peyton but the blonde has made herself too big for Brooke to fit.
"I'll sleep downstairs." Brooke tells Lucas and heads downstairs, seeing Ryan, still shirtless lying on the couch.
"You can have the couch." She hears him say suddenly and sees his head turn towards her.
"It's fine, just scoot in." She says and lies down in front of him on her side with Ryan directly behind her, spooning her with Brooke wrapping his arms around her.
After a few seconds of tense silence Ryan hears Brooke sobbing and wet droplets falling down on his arm.
"Brooke. Why are you crying? Peyton will be fine." Ryan asks her in a gentle tone.
"I'm such a terrible friend and an even worse person." Brooke cries, shaking in his arms.
"I don't know you that well... but I think you're a good person. Maybe a mean drunk, but the real you is someone I'd like to call my friend." Ryan tells her.
"You're just flattering me to get in my pants." Brooke says still sniffling.
"I'm not. Believe me. I had enough girl drama for a lifetime." Ryan sighs.
"And compared to me you're a saint, so don't be so hard in yourself. I know I wouldn't." He adds.
"Thank you. I'd like to think of you as my friend too. I don't really have any good friends besides Peyton." Brooke thanks him, snuggling back into him, pulling his arms closed around her again.