Chapter Twenty One
Unexpected Things
"Haley, it's Keith. I know it's late, but somethings happened to Lucas."
What? What's wrong with him? Keith?"
"He's been in a car accident. I don't know much, but he's in surgery right now. I just thought you would want to know."
"Yeah, of course I do. I'll be right there."she hung up and just stared at Nathan not knowing what to do.
"Haley, what is it? What's going on?"
"It's Lucas. He was in a car accident. I need you to take me to the hospital now. Hurry lets go."she ran to the door and turned back when she realized that he wasn't behind her."What are you waiting for Nathan? Lets go."
"I can't."she stared at him."Brooke has my car, remember?"
"Shit. Well call her and tell her to come pick us up."
He pulled out his cell and was about to dial her number when he heard a sound coming from the couch. He closed his phone.
"What the hell are you doing? Call her. We need to hurry. I have to see Lucas."screamed Haley through tears. She had never been more scared in her life.
Nathan walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders."Calm down Haley. Tim's here, we'll take his car."
"Oh, okay well lets go."she quickly ran out the door not bothering to check if he was following.
Nathan walked up to a passed out Tim and found his car keys in his pocket and followed Haley out.
Nathan let Haley off the car in front of the emergency room and went to park the car. The ride over had been dead silent. What was there to talk about? Nothing. They were both too worried about what was waiting for them in that hospital.
Haley ran into the hospital and immediately saw Keith."Keith. Oh my god. Is he okay? Please tell me he's okay."
Keith shook his head."I don't know sweetie. They haven't come out to tell me anything yet. He's still in surgery."
"What about Karen? Does she know about Lucas?"
"Yes she knows. The doctors needed consent to operate, so we called her. She faxed over her consent. She's on her way home now."
"What happened? Why was Lucas in this accident to begin with?"
"Well the doctors aren't too sure yet, but they think he had been drinking. You know I should really call Whitey. I'm sure he'd want to know about this. I'll be right back sweetie."
Haley stood there and tried to take a deep breath, but couldn't. She felt like she couldn't breathe at all. He was drunk and he had been driving, that's why he was in this accident and it was all her fault. She let her tears fall. There was no way she could stop them.
Nathan walked into the waiting room and saw his girlfriend in tears. He quickly walked up to her and drew her into a hug."It's okay baby. He's going to be fine."
She pulled out of his grasp."How do you know that, huh? Because we can't know that for sure. Nobody can. He is lying in here because of me."
"What? Haley, how is this your fault?"
"He was drunk Nathan. That's why he was in this accident."
"I'm sorry, but I still don't see how that is your fault."
"I knew that he was drunk and I didn't do anything about it. I didn't try and stop him. I was too angry at what he did to care how he got home. I should have known that he was going to drive and would probably get hurt. What a good best friend I am."she scoffed.
He grabbed onto each of her shoulders and turned her to him."Don't do this to yourself Haley. This in no way is your fault. If you need someone to blame, then blame me. I saw that he was drunk too and I literally threw him out of my house. I didn't care that he was going to drive home. I just wanted him gone."
"This isn't your fault Nathan."
"Yeah, I know, but this isn't your fault either."
She nodded and rested her head on his chest. He felt her tears seep through his shirt."What am I going to do Nathan? I can't lose him."
Nathan held her tighter."Your not. Lucas is strong. There is no way that he is not going to pull through this."
She looked up at him."Thank you. Thank you for trying to make me feel better."he kissed her forehead."I know that you can't stand him right now and here you are saying all these nice things."
He slightly pulled away from her and looked her in the eyes."I may not like how he treats Brooke, but I never wanted anything like this to happen to him. I hope you believe that."
"I do."she let go of his waist."Speaking of Brooke, I should probably call her. She would want to know what's going on. Can I borrow your phone? I left mine in the car."
He handed her his phone and she dialed Brooke's number."Damn it. Hey Brooke it's Haley. I really need you to call me as soon as you get this message. Something happened. Bye." she turned to Nathan."She has her phone off. It went straight to her voice mail."
"It's okay. We'll try her again later."
Two hours later Haley, Nathan, and Keith still sat in the waiting room with no news on Lucas.
"This is getting ridiculous. How can they not come out here and tell us what's going on?"Keith got up out of the very uncomfortable chair."I'll be right back, hopefully with some news."
Haley to got up."I'm going to try Brooke again."
"Haley you already left her four messages. I think that's enough."
"I don't care. I'm calling her again."she pulled out the phone and dialed."Brooke where the hell are you? And why aren't you answering your phone? I really need to talk to you. Fine, look I didn't want you to find out over the phone, but your not answering. Lucas was in a car accident. I don't know much right now, but you should really get down to the hospital as soon as you get this. Brooke call me okay."she hung up." I don't know why she hasn't called me back. Where is she?"
"Haley it's only..."he looked at his watch."5:30 in the morning. I'm sure she's just asleep. She'll call you as soon as she wakes up and sees that you called."
"Your right. I'm worrying about her for nothing."she looked passed him and saw Keith coming. She walked over to him."Did you find out anything?"
He shook his head."Not really. He's still in surgery. They lost him for a few minutes, but he came back. The nurse said as soon as he's out of surgery the doctor would come out here and talk to us."
"So what, we're supposed to just sit out here and wait? How are we supposed to do that?"
"It's okay Haley, calm down. As soon as they know something, they'll let us know."said Nathan trying to reassure her.
"I know. It's just all this waiting is starting to get to me. He has to be okay. He just has to."
"And he will be."
It seemed like they had been there waiting forever, when Karen rushed into the waiting room.
"Keith? Oh my god. What's going on. What happened to my boy?"
Keith wrapped his arms around her."I'm sorry Karen. I should have made him stay home tonight. This is all my fault."
Karen pulled away from him."No, this isn't your fault Keith. There is no way you could have known this was going to happen."she looked around and saw Haley and Nathan there."Was he alone? Was it his fault? What about the other driver? Will somebody please tell me what happened?"
Keith took her hand and walked her to a chair. He sat her down."Okay, I don't now to much, but yes Lucas was by himself. The other driver wasn't hurt much. He had the green light and said Lucas turned right in front of him. He tried to stop, but he couldn't."
Karen began to cry harder. Thinking about what must have been going through Lucas' head as the car hit him was too much for her. Seeing Karen cry in turn made Haley start to cry. Keith looked at the two, but knew he had to continue. Karen needed to know everything, even if she wasn't going to like it."The doctor thinks Lucas was driving drunk. They'll let us know more when he's out of surgery, which should be soon. It's been almost five hours."
"Lucas wouldn't drive drunk. He knows better. That has to be a mistake."said Karen shaking her head.
"It very well might be. We'll know for sure when the doctor comes."
Haley looked away from the two and looked at the clock on the wall. It was 7:45 am. She turned to Nathan."I'm going to try Brooke again."he nodded and she dialed.
"Hello."
"Oh my god Brooke. It's about time you answered. I've been calling you all night."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Did you get my messages?"
Brooke sighed into the phone."Yeah, I got them."
"All of them?"
"Yes."
"So then you know about Lucas?"
"Yes."
Haley was beginning to get frustrated that she was only giving her one word answers."Well then why didn't you call me back?"
"I was going to. I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
"How is he?"
"We still don't know anything. So are you getting ready to come over here? We're all here."
"No, I'm not going to the hospital."
"Brooke, Lucas needs his friends right now. You have to come."
"I'm sorry Haley, but I can't. There's nothing I can do for him there."
"You can just be here for him Brooke. Look, I know you probably hate him, but you need to put that aside right now. We are all upset because of what he did last night, but..."she was cut off.
"I'm sorry Haley. I have to go. I'll talk to you later."she hung up. Tears poured down her face. She hadn't been able to stop crying since she got Haley's messages. She couldn't believe it. Yes she was angry at him, but she loved him even more. This was the last thing she wanted to happen. She knew the right thing to do was to go to the hospital and wait with everybody to make sure he was okay. She wanted more than anything to be there when they found out how he was, but she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. She was afraid that if she was there and they got bad news she would completely fall apart in front of everyone and that was the last thing they needed. She sank down into her bed and continued to cry as she clutched her pillow tightly to her chest. She thought back to everything she had been through with Lucas and realized she had never cried this much over one person. Nobody had every had this much ability to hurt her and to her that meant she had to truly love him, even if she didn't want to. He had her heart and probably always would. She would gladly take the pain he caused her by messing with Peyton again, if it meant that this pain would go away. If it meant that Lucas would be at home right now in his bed, okay. There was nothing she wanted more than that.
Haley stared at the phone.
"What happened?"asked Nathan.
"She's not coming. She doesn't care. She's too angry at him to care. I can't believe her."she shook her head.
"I doubt that's what's going on Haley."
"She said there was nothing she could do for him here, so she wasn't coming."
"Maybe it's just too hard for her. Have you thought about that?"
"Yes I have, but it's hard for all of us too, but we're still here. She should be too. They love each other."
"Haley don't be upset with her okay? She needs to deal with this in her own way. She'll come around. I know it."he saw Haley look over his shoulder and he followed her gaze to the doctor who was now approaching Karen and Keith. She ran over and stood next to Karen and he followed.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Oliver. I just finished up with Lucas."
"How is he?"asked Karen.
"He's stable now. We lost him for a couple of minutes and he lost a lot of blood."
"Can I see him?"
"Yes of course, but due to the loss of blood and lack of oxygen he is now in a coma."
Karen gasped and turned to lean on Keith's chest. Nathan found himself holding onto Haley, more for himself then her. He couldn't believe this was happening. His brother was in a coma.
"When will he wake up?"asked Keith still holding onto a sobbing Karen.
"We're not sure of that. It's pretty much up to him. It could be a few hours, a few days, or in the worse case a few months, although we don't think it will take months. It's basically up to him and his body."
"I need to see him."said Karen pulling herself from Keith.
"Okay, I'll take you to him, but I need to ask you one question."Karen nodded."Is your son on any anti depressant or anti anxiety medications?"
"What? No, Lucas isn't on any medications right now. Why would you even ask that?"
"Well we found a rather large amount of Xanax in his system along with alcohol. This more than likely is what caused him to run that red light and cause the accident."
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews. They mean everything to me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know I have Brooke crying a lot. I just want to show that there is more to her then what they showed us last season. She's a real person who hurts easy just like everybody else. She's just better at covering it up. I also know that you all want her and Lucas to get back together and don't worry it's coming. I wanted to make it realistic, so I didn't have her run back into his arms because he now realized she was the one he wanted. Let me know what you think. I really want to know what you like and dis like about it so please read and review. Thanks.
Coming Up:
Karen gives the doctor a piece of her mind.
Karen asks Haley her opinion.
Haley talks to Brooke in person.