Chapter Seventy-Three

I nervously punched the familiar number again into my cell and waited while it fruitlessly rang three times.

"Brooke?" came Mouth's voice, sleepily, from our bedroom.

"Just a sec, I'm making a call!" I yelled back.

I made a quiet noise of frustration as the call was forwarded again to Lucas Scott's answering machine. He'd asked me to call him at ten on Saturday. What was wrong with him? Was he okay?

"I'm going out to buy milk," I lied quickly to my fiancé before grabbing my Louis Vuitton bag and running out of the house.

I banged three times on Lucas' door, yelling through it to him to open up. When he didn't, I glanced around nervously and gained access with my key.

I wrinkled my nose at what surrounded me. Beer bottles overflowed the kitchen counter's and all the garbage bins. The place stank of cigarette smoke.

I kicked a magazine out of the way as I walked slowly to Lucas' room. My hand hovered above his doorknob, reluctant to enter the room I'd already spent so much of my time in.

"LUCAS!" I screamed, once I'd entered. He was lying on the floor, his eyes half closed, pale as death.

"Brooke…" I heard him whisper.

"Oh Luke, what have you doing?" I asked, running to him and kneeling by where he lay. I took his hand and squeezed his fingers.

"Took some pills…" he managed to stay. I felt for his heartbeat.

"Why?" I asked, as I reached for my phone.

"I had nothing… left," he said.

"Hi, I need an ambulance…" I said into the phone.

"Don't… Tigger…" he said slowly. In spite of myself, I smiled at him.

"I'm not going to let you die," I promised.

"You should… Broke hearts… Peyton's… Yours… Hers… she's gone…" he said.

"You're not making sense. Save your breath," I urged.

"And now… you have M… Mouth, Peyton has Jake and their girls… I have no… no one," he said. His words were beginning to make less and less sense. His eyes fluttered again.

"You have us. You'll always have us," I promised.

"I don't want you… not only… like that," he said.

Outside, I heard a siren blare. It was almost time. What was he saying?

"Take care… of everyone… Lucy… my sister. Tell Haley…" he said.

"She knows already. Don't worry, we'll all be fine until you get out," I said.

"Never… out… Brooke…" he said. The door burs open, and three paramedics and with a stretched enter unceremoniously.

They bundled him onto the stretched, checked his pulse and attached some kind of mask before taking him out. One of the paramedics lingered.

"Who are you, a relation?" he asked.

"Not really. Just a friend," I said, looking through the open door.

"Why did you have his key?" asked the paramedic.

"I used to be his mistress. Can we go with them?" I asked. He nodded, and we ran out the door.

I rode in the ambulance, but once we arrived at the hospital they took Luke somewhere and made me stay behind, in the waiting room.

"Mouth?" I said into my phone, after it rang.

"Brooke? Where are you? Are you okay?" asked his voice anxiously through the phone.

"I'm fine. I'm at the hospital. Luke tried to kill himself," I explained shakily.

"Luke? As in Lucas Scott? How do you know?" he asked, his confusion evident.

"Hard to explain. Come down here and I'll tell you everything, I promise," I swore.

"All right. I'll drop Kylie off at Peyton and Jake's," he said slowly.

As soon as he arrived, I charged into his arms and cried while he held me.

"Brooke, what's going on?" he asked gently, leading me back to the chairs.

"I don't know. I brought him here and they took him somewhere and they won't tell me anything," I said.

"I'll find something. But how did you find him?" he persisted.

"You're not going to like this," I began.

"Always a good way to start a story. Tell me," he pressed.

"Well, Lucas and I slept together for months," I said brightly, taking a sip of coffee. Mouth sighed.

"Yeah, I kind of knew," he admitted.

"How?"

"Lucas told me. He was being an asshole," said Mouth.

"And you don't care?" I asked. It bothered me slightly that he didn't care. He was supposed to care.

"Of course I care. But we weren't technically together. And I know it's over. And I'm so thankful that we're finally back to where we started that I wouldn't care if you slept with everyone in Tree Hill," he declared. I leaned forward and kissed him.

"You're incredible. I love you. And I basically have," I joked.

"Miss Davis?" calls a voice. I run over to a stern looking nurse.

"Mr. Scott is going to be fine in the long run. We pumped his stomach, we recommend rehab and a possible environment change," she said.

"Thank you. Thank you so much, it's so good to hear that," I blubbered.

I looked back to the small grouping of chairs to where Mouth was sitting. He'd lied to me. He did mind, at least a little bit. He still thought I was too good for him. Still thought that this wasn't real, that all of it had just been a good dream. There was one way, and one way alone to get around this.

"Hey, I have an idea…" I began.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked much later, as we pulled up in front of Tree Hill City Hall. I nodded slowly, waited until he came around to my side of the car to open the door, and climbed out. Together, hand in hand, we walked into the building.

And when we walked out, we were married.