Sorry for the delay...After I finished writing this chapter I realized it was very dedicated to Madison and Shane so I apologize because they are not really part of One Tree Hill and really don't need to be involved...so I promise the next chapters will reveal what's supposed to happen and what's not minus a lot of Madison but maybe some more Shane...remember to review all!
"So tell me this again." Lucas sat there with Nathan soaking it all in.
"I told Brooke to not tell Peyton about where I was and then Peyton came, saw and flipped. I just couldn't take the pressure anymore so I bolted. I just kept driving and found myself here. I went to your old house and your mom gave me this address." Madison said in one breath.
"Peyton flips all the time." Nathan said not really caring about what new drama had arose.
"You don't understand. I was trying so hard to forget about Tree Hill." Madison buried her face in her hand.
"Looks like we have something in common." Nathan said thumping his feet on the coffee table.
"Nathan if you're not going to help what are you still doing here?" Lucas said getting annoyed.
"Well who's going to spread the gossip if I don't? Someone's got to fill for Brooke. Why not me?" Nathan smirked.
"I really want to smack you right now." Lucas said clenching his fists.
"You wouldn't hit the guy holding your child." Nathan said sifting the sleeping Braden into his lap, "Would you?"
"Saved by the baby." Lucas said refocusing his attention to Madison, "So what can I do to help you?"
"Can I stay the night?" Madison wiped away her tears.
"Yeah, we've got room here." Lucas said feeling a little guilty that he was consenting to Madison sleeping in his house without Brooke's knowledge, "I'll set up the couch."
"Then where am I going to sleep?" Nathan said snapping out of his exhausted trance.
"You have a home, which is not here." Lucas said snidely.
"Just remember that when you call me for help." Nathan said getting all huffy.
"I will don't worry." Lucas glared over at Nathan who was still holding Braden. Lucas was trying so hard to refrain from hitting his idiot of a brother but he was finding it very hard. He dug his nails into his palms to retain himself.
"I don't want to inconvenience anyone." Madison spoke up softly.
"You're not. Nathan's fine with the chair or just going home all together." Lucas reassured Madison with a light touch.
"I just didn't know where else to go." Madison buried her head in her hands again. Her fragile body shook with sobs.
"Well I'm glad you came here." Lucas wrapped his arms around her body trying to comfort her.
"It's just I've never had friends before and it scared me so I wanted to forget about you guys, as crazy as that sounds. I just couldn't; you're not that easy to just erase. And then Peyton blowing up in my face it was just too much to juggle." Madison just kept babbling on and on and Lucas listened intently.
"It's okay now. You don't have to worry about anything now." Lucas rubbed the small of her back.
"I'm going to be in so much trouble though." Madison wiped away her flowing tears with the back of her hand, "Do you know before I came here it was so easy to pull that whole suicide bit off. After I came here it was impossible. This place either changed me or ruined me."
"I think it changed you and for the good I might add." Lucas' voice was so reassuring and comforting and it was just what Madison needed to hear.
"If you say so." Madison laughed and picked her head up off of his chest, "Who would've imagined that after all that I did we'd be sitting here like this?"
"We've both changed." Lucas whispered softly smoothing his hand over her hair.
"For the best." Nathan chirped in, "You forgot to add that."
"Nate," Lucas and Madison parted from their embrace, "Shut up."
The three of them sat there and laughed together, easing the tension that had fallen on the room once Madison showed up on the door step. As they all laughed together no one heard the key slip into the lock or the knob turned. They all jumped when the door creaked open and the warm summer night air crept in with Brooke and her followers.
"Brooke what are you doing home?" Lucas asked, still trying to take everything in.
"We came looking for Madison." Brooke shut the door once everyone was inside.
"What about L.A.?" Lucas questioned standing to greet his wife.
"I don't need to go to L.A. for someone to sell my stuff. I can do it right here in Tree Hill." Brooke shrugged hugging Lucas tight.
"How'd you know I would be here?" Madison asked Shane.
"Peyton knew you'd be here." Shane said softly.
Madison seemed to shrink into this form of a little scared girl hiding from a storm. She never did understand why life had to be so hard for her. Maybe it was karma or something. She could've possibly in a past life been a serial killer or a cranky old grump and now she was paying for it in this life. How lucky had she gotten?
"What happened?" Shane asked timidly taking a step closer.
"It's nothing. You wouldn't understand." Madison withdrew even more into her safe shell.
"Try me." Shane knew girls well enough to know how to manipulate them into telling or doing anything he wanted.
"You don't understand!" Madison snapped like she had been hanging on this thin thread that had finally broken, "You never did!"
"Maybe if you'd let me in I would!" Shane hated being yelled at but he knew he had to go easy with her.
"You don't care! Don't pretend like you do!" Tension was heating up and the Tree Hill gang backed up and let Hurricane Madison run it's course.
"That's not true and you know it. You're my sister; of course I care about you!" Shane quieted himself down, "It's just you're not used to people caring about you. Mom and Dad never did."
"How would you know? You were never there!" Madison did not want to quiet herself down. She wanted the whole world to know how she felt.
"I couldn't stand to be there with Mom and Dad always fighting." Shane calmed himself even more.
"You don't know what it's like to have no friends; no one that cares about you! You never did and never will." Madison was really letting him have it.
Brooke ran down the hallway into the dark room that in daylight would have been pink.
"Oh Bella did they wake you?" Brooke scooped her into her arms, "I'm sorry baby."
When Brooke walked back into Hurricane Madison Lucas was already cradling a wide awake Braden in his arms. Just seeing this sight made Brooke realize again why she loved him so much.
"Uh, guys can you keep it down?" Brooke hesitantly interrupted the storm.
"Yeah sorry." Shane said not taking his eyes off Madison as if she'd run the second she wasn't under close watch. "Madison, why don't we just go home and talk about this?"
"No, we're going to do this right here, right now." Madison said with fire in her eyes. She was going to let Shane have it; everything that she had bottled up for all these years. He needed to hear it finally.
"In front of everyone? Wouldn't you like to do this in private?" Shane really was the one who didn't want to let Peyton see this.
"They already know all what I have to say. Unlike you, they were there for me when I needed them." Madison sneered, disregarding Brooke's plea for silence.
"Then why do they need to hear it again. We've already awaken babies." Shane pleaded for his sister to just come with him and finish what they had started in private.
"You always do this." Madison pauses searching for words to explain it all, "You get me to do what you want, always. What about what I want?"
"I'm just trying to get you to do what's right." Shane's tone was a little softer.
"And how do you know what's right?" Madison let a lone tear streak down her cheek.
"Because I'm your big brother and I just want to help you get over this bump in the road." Shane stepped closer to his sister, who he had yet again cracked.
"Where else are we going to go?" Madison stood where she was even though Shane was trying to pull a sibling moment.
"Anywhere but here." Shane said wrapping his arms around his crazy little sister.
"Well if you guys are going to yell some more I know a place." Nathan interjected the moment.
"Nathan, don't get involved." Haley said pinching his side.
"I'm just saying so they don't wake up all of Tree Hill this time." Nathan rubbed the spot where Haley had just pinched.
"Well we might need a place like that." Shane said lifting his head from his embrace with Madison.
"The river court is perfect for a screamfest." Nathan offered expecting to get pinched again. He had his guard up this time. He was stronger than Haley; he could take her.
"Thanks guys." Shane said as he guided Madison out of the house still attached at the hip.
After the door closed there was a mutual sigh of relief that the whole house seemed to make. Once again they had saved the day.
"We could be superheroes you know." Nathan plopped himself back onto the couch.
"Nathan do you ever just shut up." Haley said collapsing next to him.
"Nope," Nathan smiled big, "Only when I'm sleeping."
"Well you're not even quiet then." Haley snuggled in closer to his body. He wrapped his arm and pulled her as close as he could, loving the feeling of their bodies together.
"Hey, hey, I think I saved us all from a killer headache." Nathan wanted his credit for this one but all he got was another pinch from Haley.
"That's it," He stood up causing Haley to fall over on the couch, "Let's go James. You think you can take me huh?"
"Yeah Scott I do." Haley said standing up to defend herself. They circled around each other before either one attached. Haley stepped it up and took the first only to be lifted over Nathan's shoulder and carried towards the door.
"We'll catch you guys later." Nathan said before he shut the door behind them.
"Those crazy kids." Brooke said settling down on the couch with Bella drinking from a warm bottle.
"Yeah," Lucas said settling down next to her with a wide awake Braden in his lap.
"What are we ever going to do with them?" Brooke asked laying her head on Lucas' shoulder.