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Karen ran into the hospital waiting room, her eyes scanned the room. Her gaze lit on a nurse at the station.
Bracing her hands on the cold flat surface, her eyes searched the nurse's pale face for any sign of recognition. Tree Hill was a small town.
"Dan Scott, where can I find him?" Karen's words rasped out quickly, her tension obvious.
The nurse studied her, while looking for a reference to the man that this woman asked for. Her eyes noted the woman's bright feverish eyes and tense fidgety hands.
"Mr. Scott is in Room 302." Her eyebrows raised in shock, as the woman hurried away.
Karen pushed the door open and saw Dan resting alone on the bed. His chest was bare, hooked up to different machines. His eyes were shut.
Slowly, she approached the bed, her eyes focused on his pale complexion. She didn't remember ever seeing him look even potentially vulnerable. Almost like a little boy, pale with sickness, waiting for a caring hand to wipe away the pain.
A soft cough alerted to someone else's presence. A man in green scrubs beckoned to her from the hall.
"Who are you?" the doctor asked.
"I was with him when he had the attack. Is he going to be okay?" Karen asked anxiously.
"He suffered a mild heart attack, brought on by a high level of blood pressure. He appears to be under a lot of stress, that seems to have been the trigger of his attack. Physically, he's fine. There's no reason he shouldn't make a full recovery. Given that his blood pressure remains low." The doctor looked pointedly at her.
"Can I sit with him?" Karen looked nervously at the door.
"Yes, he'll be a bit groggy from the sedative, I gave him." The doctor smiled. As he walked away, he remembered that he'd forgotten to tell the woman that he'd called the man's wife.
Karen approached the bed quietly. Dan began to stir, moving his head from side to side, his brow furrowed in confusion.
His eyes shot open, moving around frantically, until they settled on Karen.
He opened his mouth to speak. Karen quieted him with a finger to his lips.
Pulling a chair up to his bed, she took his hand. Looking deep into his eyes, she felt herself plunging off a deep cliff, journeying to an unknown destination. "I was so scared when I came out of the bathroom and saw you lying there on the ground."Dan looked at her, taking in her beauty. His eyes searched her face, watching as the sunlight danced across her face. Highlighting the beauty of her hair, brightness of her eyes and luminescence of her skin. His fixation was broken by a blur of blond in his peripheral vision.
Turning his head, his lips curled in a mocking smirk, reminiscent of the old Dan. His lovely soon-to-be ex-wife. Deb.
She stepped into the room. Her eyes stopped on Karen, questions in her eyes. Her eyebrows rose, when she saw Karen's hand lying enfolded in Dan's.
"I came as soon as I head." Her words fell like glass shattering after a piercing scream.
"Why are you here? After finding you in bed with Keith last night. I thought I made it clear that I didn't want to see you again." His words dripped with an acid undertone, as his obvious disgust with her flared in his eyes. "Once a tramp, always a tramp." Tossing the last few words at her, he looked away.
Deb's face blanched white, her eyes caught Karen's shocked ones. Turning on her designer heel, she fled the room, ruing the day she met Dan Scott.
Karen was still in shock from that revelation.
Dan turned back to look at her. His eyes had a faraway look in them. "Last night, I went by the house to pick some stuff up. I walked into the living room and saw them together." He closed his eyes.
Karen was still frozen, a deer caught in headlights, trying to picture what he'd seen. And yet, not wanting to think Keith would do such a thing so soon after claiming to want to marry her.
"Obviously, Keith got over you quickly." Dan's biting words grated on her.
Looking into her eyes, he spoke three words that shocked her even more. "I never did."
Next update: within the week