+17

Recap:

Lucas ran over to Brooke. He lifted her head up. It wasn't bleeding, thank God.

"Brooke, are you ok?" Lucas asked.

"Ow.pain," she said with her eyes closed. Brooke could feel the tears welling up. She refused to let them slid down her cheeks. "Sleep I want sleep."

Lucas didn't know what to do. No one did. He knew you couldn't go to sleep though. "No, no, no Brooke. You can't go to sleep," he instructed. "C'mon stay with me."

Part 17:

Lucas pulled off his hoodie, leaving him with a t-shirt. He balled it up and laid it in his lap. He gently lifted Brooke's head and had her lay on the hoodie, in his lap.

"Brooke," he said, trying to make her stay with him.

She didn't answer.

"Brooke," Lucas repeated himself, this time with more urgency and worry lacing his voice.

Brooke groaned. "Not so loud," she whispered.

"C'mon. Talk to me Brooke. About anything." Lucas needed to keep her up. Hopefully talking would do it.

Lucas turned when he heard a car engine start. Peyton's. She backed up and was out of sight in seconds. He didn't have time to go after her. Luke sighed. He would have thought Peyton would have stayed here with her best friend. Luke maneuvered and managed to pick Brooke up and cradle her in his arms.

"Guys, I'm sorry to cut this short but I'm gonna take her home," Lucas announced the to guys.

"Its coo man," Skills said with a nod. The others agreed.

Lucas set Brook into his truck and ran around to the driver's side. He started up the engine and immediately headed to his house. He figured she could stay there for now. At least he would know she was being taken car of. Luke kept asking Brooke questions to keep her awake. Shortly thereafter Lucas pulled up in front of his house. He took her into his arms and headed into the house. He laid her down on his bed.

Brooke squinted at him. It had been the first time she had opened her eyes since she had hit her head. Her head was pounding and the sunlight shining into his room made her immediately close her eyes. Light, loud noises all seemed to add to the pain she was in.

Luke managed to get the hint. He closed the blinds and pulled the curtains shut; leaving them in a very dimly lit room.

"Now try opening your eyes," Lucas instructed softly, retaking his spot sitting on the bed next to Brooke, who was lying down.

Brooke opened one eye first and then the other. It was better. Now if only she could get the pain to lessen. "Got a hundred or so aspirin I could have?" she asked jokingly.

"I'll be right back." Lucas left the room and returned later with a can of coke, two aspirin, and an ice pack.

Lucas helped Brooke sit up. She swallowed one aspirin and then the other and took a sip of the soda Luke brought for her. "Thanks," she said, smiling at him. He helped her lie back down, and he leaned closer to her and held the ice pack there for her. He was so close; the scent of his cologne was intoxicating to Brooke.

Lucas used his free hand to brush the hair out of her face. "Talk to me about something."

"Like what?" Brooke asked, barely above a whisper.

Luke thought for a minute before replying. "What is you happiest childhood memory?"

Brooke looked deep in thought for a few moments. Then she grinned. "Well, I was six, no seven I think," Brooke started retelling her memory. "It was a Christmas morning, and of course being the anxious kid I was.was up by six AM," she continued with a grin. "I came downstairs to find a big box with my name on it. I opened it and inside was a tiny puppy bouncing around with a big read bow around him."

Lucas smiled at the story, and at the way Brooke looked while telling the story. He could almost swear he put a tiny, miniscule dent in her hard as ice veneer.

"What did you name it?"

"I named her Ebony. She was a black lab. I called her Ebby for short," Brooke explained to him with a child like innocence on her face. "What about you?" she asked.

Lucas laughed. "Me, my mom, and Keith went out one morning. I think it was a weekend. We got up early and my mom packed lunches that she made. This was before she had the café," he told her. "I forget how old I was. But we went out to the park. Of course we played basketball, had our lunches and just all hung out and had a good time." Lucas recalled the memory vividly. "We laid on the grass and picked out shapes in the clouds."

Brooke laughed. "That's cute," she said drowsily and yawned.

Lucas hoped his mom would be home soon. When he had called her from the park to take a rain check on lunch she said she was going to leave soon.

END PART 17