Sorry for the slight delay. Happy 4th of July to all Americans reading this, and enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Twenty Seven: More Than I Can Take

Haley James-Scott and Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer stood outside the door of the Scott mansion. They were unsure of what sight would greet them as they waited for someone to open the door.

It had been a day since Brooke had returned from New York and Lucas had vowed to tell her the truth about what happened at Tim's party. Since neither of them had heard from Brooke since, they weren't sure what exactly had gone on.

The two friends waited patiently for the door to open, armed with tissues, ice-cream and man-bashing music. Their usual 'crisis kit'.

Brooke opened the door and greeted them both with a smile – not the weepy, distressed and angry Brooke they'd half-expected to find.

"Hey!" she said giving them both a hug and allowing them in. While Brooke's back was turned, Peyton and Haley gave each other a confused look. Brooke began talking about some movie she'd been watching as she led them to her room and flopped down on her bed.

"You look… happy," Peyton said. Brooke frowned slightly with confusion.

"Thank you?" she said, "So do you, Peyton." Brooke replied to her friend's statement.

"Didn't Lucas tell you?" Haley blurted out, extremely confused with why Brooke was smiling widely if Lucas had told her about Sarah. Peyton nudged Haley as a warning.

"Tell me what?" Brooke questioned.

"That we're taking you out to dinner on your birthday. All of us," Peyton quickly covered. Haley nodded and Brooke's grin grew wider.

"That is so cool! I can't wait," Brooke said, "I have had the worst weekend," she groaned.

"Really?" Peyton asked. Brooke nodded.

"Yeah, it turns out my parents only wanted to see me to see if they could have my trust fund. Like that was going to happen!" Brooke rolled her eyes.

"And Lucas?" Haley ventured. Brooke smiled again.

"Oh, he's been amazing. He totally forgave me for that stupid mistake I made. I hope I can make it up to him. What do you think I should do?" she asked. Haley and Peyton were virtually speechless.

Lucas hadn't told Brooke a thing.

Brooke frowned, "What's that?" she questioned as she eyed the 'crisis kit'.

Haley blushed, "Oh, I went shopping."

Brooke brightened, "Ooooh, I love shopping. What did you buy?" Haley clutched the bag to her chest before Brooke could reach for it.

"Just groceries. Speaking of which, I have ice cream in the bag so I'm going to use your freezer," she said. Brooke nodded and Haley quickly left the room.

"What's up with her?" Brooke asked Peyton, who gave a shrug and forced a smile.

-----

After putting the melting ice cream in the freezer, Haley spotted Lucas walking into the house.

Her eyes narrowed and she marched up to him, hitting him upside the head.

"Hey!" he protested as he rubbed it, "What's the matter with you?" He grimaced.

"Me? What's the matter with you?" Haley questioned, thoroughly irritated with her brother-in-law. "Why is Brooke smiling? You were supposed to tell her!"

Lucas clamped a hand over Haley's mouth, "Shhhh!" he hissed. Haley bit his hand and he yelped in pain. "Hey, that hurt!"

"Good!" Haley said through gritted teeth. "You deserve it!"

"Look, I decided that maybe Nathan raised a valid point. I want Brooke happy and I want Brooke with me. Is that so bad?" Lucas asked. Haley didn't say anything. "You haven't said anything, have you?"

Haley shook her head, "No, we haven't. But just so you know, we're all taking Brooke out to dinner for her birthday."

"That's a great idea," Lucas agreed.

"Haleeeeeeeeey!" Brooke called from her room, "What's taking you so long?"

"I'd better go," Haley said pointing in the direction of Brooke. Lucas nodded.

"Thanks, Haley. For not saying anything," Lucas said gratefully.

"I didn't do it for you, Lucas," she replied. "And we're eating at Du Jour."

"Really? That place is kind of expensive," Lucas said scratching his head. Haley's lips curled into a small smile.

"I know. That's why you're paying," she told him before disappearing down the hall.

-----

"I can't believe Lucas didn't tell her," Haley complained as she and Peyton walked down the halls of the school. "Doesn't he know he's making things even worse?"

Peyton shrugged, "Well, Lucas has never been one to listen to anyone else. He plays by his own rules – though I thought that being with Brooke was changing him."

"It was." Haley noted, "I thought it was admirable the way he was going to face up to his mistakes. But I guess he chickened out."

"To be fair, it's not like the two of them have long left anyway. He's going to college in a few months. Either way, we're going to be dealing with a broken-hearted Brooke anyway," Peyton said.

"Well, I, for one, am a firm believer in true love. Maybe they could have a long distance relationship. Sometimes it works," Haley sighed. She knew she was a hopeless romantic, and because she'd experienced her own fairy tale, gave her the belief that others could do so too.

Peyton scoffed, "Yeah right. He couldn't even deal a night without Brooke. How many skanky hoes are there going to be when he can only see Brooke every other weekend?"

"Speaking of skanky hoes…" Haley trailed off as they stopped a small distance away from a familiar blonde, "There's the one that started it all."

"Sarah Ford." Peyton said in disgust as she watched Sarah draping herself over one of the football players.

"Remind me to keep her away from Nathan," Haley muttered. "God, I hate her."

"Come on," Peyton said as the football player disentangled himself from her clutches and left her alone.

Peyton dragged Haley towards Sarah and the two cornered her.

"What do you want?" Sarah frowned.

"We've got a bone to pick with you," Peyton said.

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Did I sleep with one of your boyfriends?" she questioned, her eyes flicking between the two girls.

"No, but you slept with our friend's," Haley retorted. "Do you not even remember?" Sarah laughed.

"Honey, I sleep with a lot of guys. You're going to have to help me out here." Sarah told them.

Peyton shook her head, "You're really a piece of work, you know that? It's people like you who ruin solid relationships."

"They wouldn't really be solid relationships if they managed to get to me now, would they?" Sarah asked.

"Of course not, if the right amount of anger and alcohol are involved. He was practically unconscious! That's almost rape!" Haley said, keeping her voice down so that no-one could hear them. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"Okay, whatever. You guys have a beef with me, but obviously your friend doesn't, which generally means she doesn't know. If you were such good friends, then why lie to her?"

Haley and Peyton exchanged a look.

"Hey guys," Brooke called as she came up to them. She looked at Sarah and frowned, "Who is this?"

Haley and Peyton tried to articulate an appropriate answer.

'Hey Brooke, this is the slut who slept with Lucas while you were out of town. Of course, you don't know about that because we're all lying to you'.

"I'm Sarah," she extended a hand out to Brooke, who shook it.

"Brooke Davis." The name triggered some sort of recognition in Sarah and she smiled.

"Really?" Sarah said, looking between Haley and Peyton who were hoping the Earth would swallow them up before things got any worse.

Unfortunately for them, it did.

"Over here!" Brooke called out to Lucas as she waved him over to where they were. He had no choice but to comply, facing a very awkward situation between him, Brooke, Haley, Peyton and Sarah – who seemed to be enjoying every moment of this.

"Oh, geez," Haley muttered under her breath.

"This is Sarah," she introduced, "Sarah, this is-"

"Lucas Scott," Sarah finished with a smile.

"You guys know each other?" Brooke asked.

"I've seen him around," Sarah said just as the bell rang out. Haley, Lucas and Peyton all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Saved by the bell.

"That's my cue," Sarah said to the group, extending her hand towards Brooke, "It was really nice to meet you, Brooke." Brooke nodded.

"You too, I guess." Brooke replied, as Sarah sauntered down the hall. "So… why are you hanging out with her?" she pointed her thumb in Sarah's direction.

"Oh, she's in my History class. I just needed to give her some notes," Peyton lied, hating every single minute of it. However, Brooke seemed to buy it.

"Okay," she said before holding Lucas' arm, "Come on, Broody; you can walk me to Biology," she grinned. He nodded and the couple began making their way in the opposite direction – leaving Haley and Peyton standing in the middle of the corridor.

"That's it," Peyton exclaimed, "If he doesn't tell her – I will."

Haley ran her fingers through her hair, "Yeah, I think I'm right behind you on that one."

Peyton linked an arm with Haley's and Haley rested her head on Peyton's shoulder.

"Monday's suck."

-----

By the time Thursday night rolled around. Lucas still hadn't told Brooke the truth.

There had been plenty of opportunities for him to come clean but each time he tried to, she gave him a big smile or said something that made him reconsider.

The last thing he wanted to do was put their whole future together in jeopardy.

But the strain of keeping a secret from the one person he could usually be honest with was beginning to show. Brooke had noticed he was becoming more and more distracted, he didn't want to have sex as often as usual, and wasn't as forthcoming when it came to talking to her.

Truth be told, she was starting to grow frustrated and wondered what the cause of the change in his behavior was.

So she turned to the only person that Lucas could come clean with.

"Nathan!" she called through his apartment as she entered without knocking. Nathan exited out of the bathroom, disheveled and with a towel wrapped haphazardly around his waist.

"What?" he asked urgently, "What's wrong?"

When Nathan had heard the door open and the cry of his name, he'd immediately stopped his shower and ran out of the bathroom, his mind flitting to the possibility of something bad happening to Haley, Lucas or anyone else he loved.

"I need to talk to you," Brooke said making herself at home. "It's about Lucas."

"Oh," Nathan said, wondering if Lucas had told her the truth.

'Of course he hasn't told her yet, he thought to himself, 'if he had, Brooke would be throwing things right about now'.

Nevertheless, Nathan's eyes flicked momentarily around the room, hoping that she wasn't sitting next to any breakable things or weapons. He eyed the vase on the coffee table and gulped.

"What about Lucas?" he asked, keeping a hand tightly around his towel.

"Have you noticed him acting… weird lately? Like distracted and stuff?" she asked.

Nathan shrugged, "Kind of, I guess. But that could just be because of basketball and stuff."

"Maybe…" Brooke contemplated this and noticed Nathan looking rather uncomfortable, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Me? I'm fine," Nathan said before changing his mind, "Actually, do you mind while I go put on some clothes? This isn't exactly comfortable for me and Haley will kill me if she sees a trail of water on the floor."

"Sure," Brooke said as Nathan gratefully nodded his head and began to walk towards his bedroom.

He frowned as he noticed Brooke following him.

"Do you mind?" he asked when they reached the threshold of his bedroom.

"Not at all," Brooke said without moving.

"This is usually the part where you leave so I can get dressed." Nathan prompted. Brooke pouted.

"Come on! I've seen you naked before. It's nothing new. What's skin between two people who could almost be related?" she asked. Nathan raised and eyebrow and she surrendered, stepping back and allowing Nathan to close the door and have some privacy.

Brooke waited outside the door for a few moments before walking off to the living room. She looked along the rows of photos the couple had arranged neatly on the fireplace and smiled. There was a few of the couple, one at their wedding and two other ones Brooke couldn't really remember where they had been taken. Most of the others were of family and friends; Haley's parents and family, Lucas and Nathan when they were boys, Haley, Peyton and Brooke, and the newlyweds with Lucas and herself.

She picked that one up and studied it for a moment. It had been taken shortly after she and Lucas had officially started dating and they'd gone on bowling with Haley and Nathan.

Lucas had teased Brooke relentlessly throughout the whole thing because she kept getting gutter balls. However, Brooke got the last laugh when she managed to beat him at a car racing game in the arcade and he'd pouted all the way home.

Brooke smiled at the memory as she replaced the photo back on the fireplace.

"Reminiscing?" Nathan asked from his position at the end on the living room. Brooke shrugged.

"Yeah, we had some good times," she said, "We should go bowling again. We haven't done that in a while."

"You okay?" Nathan questioned as he sat in a nearby chair. "You seem a little down."

Brooke waved a hand dismissively, "This thing with Lucas is weighing me down a little. I can't help but thing I royally screwed up things by going to New York. Has he said anything?"

Nathan shook his head, "No, not really."

"This is all my fault. I've apologized so many times and I thought he was okay with it. I thought he'd gotten over it."

"It's not New York, Brooke," Nathan interrupted. "It's just… it's a lot of things. None of them are your fault," he reassured.

Brooke nodded and sighed, resting her head against the headrest of the armchair she was sitting in.

"I just wish he could tell me what's bugging him. He used to. Now we hardly ever talk. He doesn't even want to have sex half the time!" she complained. Nathan held up a hand.

"Whoa, whoa! Way too much information than I needed, Brooke," he groaned. Brooke couldn't help but smile.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry. Just… leave my brother's sex life out of any conversation you and I might have, okay?"

Brooke chuckled and nodded.

"You really think it'll be okay?" she asked once again.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "Just give him time, okay?"

Brooke nodded, "Thanks Nathan," she told him.

"It's okay," he replied. "Want to play some PlayStation?" he suggested. Brooke sighed and nodded.

"Only if I can choose what we play," Brooke said as she scrambled towards the stack of PlayStation games.

Nathan groaned, "Brooke, we are not playing 'The Simpsons Hit And Run' again!"

To Be Continued…