Brooke tried to open her eyes, but everything was so bright. She could hear voices in the distance. It sounded like Lucas but she wasn't sure. Her stomach was completely cramped up and even though she knew she had blankets on her, she was still in a cold sweat. That might have explained the dream she had had. It was something to do with Titanic and sinking. Only she was Rose and Lucas was Jack. And she was wearing a Juicy dress as the ship went down. The more she thought the more lucent she became, and the more pain she was feeling. Her muscles hurt from shaking and she was freezing, even though she could feel like sweat on her neck. She had no idea where she was, or who was with her.
"Brooke, sweetie are you feeling any pain?" Brooke heard a woman ask, and then touch her on the head. She opened her eyes just wide enough to see it was maybe the nurse. It wasn't until then she realized she was actually in the hospital, with an IV and the whole 9 yards.
"My stomach"
"You started contracting a little bit, we've got some medicine in your IV to hopefully stop them"
"Where's Lucas?" Brooke asked trying to make out who all was in the room. Her eyes were still blurry from waking up but from what she could tell the nurse was the only one in there with her.
"He went to talk to the doctor, he should be back momentarily. Is there anything I can get you?"
"What happened?"
"Looks like you wore yourself out. Sometimes when you get too dehydrated you can pass out" The nurse smiled sitting the bed up a little bit. Brooke didn't remember anything. Last think she knew she was yelling at Karen about Ella and the bedroom.
"And my stomach?"
"The fall probably triggered something. You've got a nice bruise on your head too. But we're pumping you full of fluids and you should be good to go in a day or so"
"Is the baby ok?" Brooke was almost scared to ask. She was having some pretty intense pain in her stomach and she guessed that wasn't normal, or good. It was like throbbing almost, but then again so was the rest of her body including her head.
"I'll let you talk to the doctor"
"God, Brooke you scared the hell out of me" Lucas sighed seeing that Brooke was awake from outside the door. He went inside and kissed the top of her head, then sat in the chair beside her bed. She looked a lot better now than she had earlier. She actually had some color to her face and the dark circles were almost completely gone.
"Sorry"
"Are you feeling ok?"
"My stomach is killing me" Brooke winced in pain as it shot up her lower back. That definitely couldn't have been normal.
"You knocked yourself pretty good when you fell. It put you into a pre-term labor" Dr. Owens said as she adjusted something on Brooke's IV pole. Brooke couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wasn't even 4 months pregnant yet, sure she wasn't exactly ready to have a baby, but that didn't mean she wanted to loose it either.
"Oh God"
"Don't start worrying yet, we've got you on some medicine that should stop it, then we'll do an amnio tomorrow, where we stick a needle into your belly and check on the baby. As far as we can tell everything's fine ok? We need you the least stressed as possible"
"Sure" Brooke whispered trying to ignore the pain she was feeling all over her body.
"I'll be back later, page me if you need anything" Dr. Owens smiled leaving Brooke and Lucas alone in the room.
"So this has been a crappy few days"
"Tell me about it, if my heart can make it through this it can make it through anything"
"What if they don't stop?" Brooke cried feeling the pain up her back again. She wasn't sure if she was crying because she was scared, or if it was just hurting that bad.
"They will ok? Just don't stress"
"Where's your mom?"
"Waiting room probably, she's kinda scared of you right now" Lucas laughed taking Brooke's hand. Brooke collapsing had definitely scared some sense into his mom. So much so she'd gone to like down in the waiting room and think.
"Because I definitely fill like getting out of this bed to hurt her"
"They can probably give you some pain meds"
"Mr. Scott, there's a lady in the ER trying to get in contact with you? Dark hair, kind of annoying, has a baby girl with her?" The nurse said knocking on the door. If anything was going to make Brooke laugh it was this. Karen had turned into such a hypochondriac lately with all her medical elements. She probably thought she was having a heart attack or something.
"That would be my mother, can you tell her to just call me later?"
"She says its an emergency, she tried a number or something"
"Go, and bring me back some ice cream or something" Brooke sighed giving Lucas the ok. She needed some time to be alone and think anyway.
"You sure?"
"Before your mother convinces herself she has something else wrong with her, go"
"Ok, I'll be back after I convince my mother she's crazy" Lucas laughed kissing Brooke on the forehead before leaving. He was seriously going to kill his mother for this one. She couldn't let him just sit with Brooke for a little while. That wasn't giving he enough attention, after all she was his mother and she claimed she still came first.
Downstairs in the ER Lucas went to the front desk to see what the hell was wrong with his mother. It had better have been something serious for her to drag him all the way down here and leave Brooke alone. But it probably wasn't. Knowing her she probably had some kind of headache she thought was a brain tumor or a stomachache that she just knew was appendicitis. He just couldn't wait for Erin to get old enough to deal with Karen's many new issues. She hadn't always been like this, in fact she had never been like this until Keith went away to Rehab. Of course he felt bad for his mom, and Keith and knew she was probably craving attention with him gone. But seriously, this was getting to be too much.
"Can I help you?" The receptionist at the front desk asked
"Lucas Scott, My mother was paging me"
"Little girl with her?"
"That would be my sister" Lucas sighed, and followed the woman down the hallway. He was surprised they'd actually put her in a room. Usually they just ignored her and sent her home with a Tylenol.
"She's your mother? I hope I look that good when my sons your age. She looks too young to be your mother"
"Tell her that one, she'll appreciate, that's not my mother" Lucas said as the nurse pointed him to the room. There was a woman, maybe in her mid 30's standing in the doorway looking out, but she definitely wasn't his mother.
"She's the one who was paging you"
"I've never seen her before in my life"
"It says right here on the contract sheet. In case of emergency call Lucas Scott or Brooke Davis, and has both phone numbers" The receptionist said looking through the chart to make sure there hadn't been some kind of a mistake. But there it was, in plain black ink. Emergency Contacts. Lucas E. Scott and Brooke P. Davis with their phone numbers printed clearly under their names.
"Maybe its in the wrong chart"
"Name Isabella"
"Wait what?" Lucas asked completely confused. He didn't have time to deal with this, especially if it wasn't about his mom.
"Are you Lucas?" The woman in the doorway asked meeting Lucas in the hallway. She looked completely frazzled and distressed, and was completely sopping wet. For a second Lucas thought this was some kind of bad joke, until then, right behind the woman there was Ella. With a big pink cast on her arm running towards Lucas.
"Daddy!"
"What's going on?"
"I falled downs" Ella said very matter of factly showing Lucas her bright pink cast as he pulled her up into his arms.
"She jumped off the sink into the bathtub, I'm Richard and Carina's neighbor. I didn't even know they had a little girl until the maid called me crying, in Spanish might I add. Apparently they're at some party? I called them and they told me to bring her here but I've got 3 kids of my own at home. I can't stay here with her"
"They aren't coming?"
"Are you kidding me? Leave a precious party? Especially since they're leaving for DC tomorrow. We'll be lucky to hear from them in a week or so. Does she have anywhere to stay? I'd keep her but like I said I've got 3 kids of my own, and without knowing a time frame" The woman was talking so fast Lucas could barely understand her. It wasn't like it mattered anyway, he sure as hell wasn't sending Ella back anywhere near that place.
"I've got her"
"Are you sure?"
"Yea, if you hear from them, you tell them to call me" Lucas said, then thanked the woman for calling him.
"Sure, and I'm sure they'll pay you very well for this. That's what they do best after all"
"They have no idea"
"You be good" The woman smiled, patting Ella on the head and waving bye. Lucas stood there holding Ella as she left. Ella really didn't seem too affected by the past few days. She was giggling and waving bye to the woman like she'd known her forever.
"Off the sink into the bathtub?" Lucas laughed taking Ella back into her little curtain area. Somehow that didn't surprise him. It was just a matter of time before she'd done something like that anyway.
"Like Dorwa"
"Yea, no more Dora for you"
"Where's is mommy?" Ella asked looking around almost like she was expecting Brooke to be there too. He almost hated to do this again, to even take her upstairs to see Brooke if they were just going to take her away again. It wasn't fair to any of them to have to keep doing this.
"She's sick"
"We go buys her prize?"
"What should we get her?" Lucas asked making small talk with the little girl while they waited for the doctor to come back in. He hadn't realized how much he'd really really missed her until he saw her smile and giggle as she thought about what to get Brooke as a present.
"A rwing"
"We already got her one"
"A maps" Ella shrieked, apparently judging from how excited she was, thinking it was the most brilliant present anyone could ever get.
"A map?"
"Likes Dorwa"
"You look like Dora" Lucas laughed hugging Ella tight.
"I miss yous"
"I missed you too baby girl"
"Ok, Ella? Just keep that dry and take her to see her regular physician in about 4 weeks. She's free to go. No more jumping off of sinks ok?" The doctor said coming in to give Lucas Ella's discharge papers and some instructions about how to take care of a cast.
"Oks"
"Good luck" the doctor smiled, giving Lucas one of those "I feel for you" pats on the shoulder as he left.
Brooke flipped channels while she waited for Lucas to come back. Luckily a Desperate Housewives marathon was on to entertain her. Now that thankfully her stomach wasn't cramping anyone, and any pain she was having everywhere else was now gone she was actually pretty bored. Maybe it would at least be a good episode and she could get some evil ideas from Gabby. Right as it flipped to commercial Karen knocked on the door a few times and walked in carrying Erin, without Lucas. Maybe he'd actually gone to get her ice cream like she'd asked.
"How are you feeling?" Karen asked taking the seat beside Brooke's bed. She felt so bad for everything that had happened today. And the fact that it all could have turned out so much worse made her feel even more guilty.
"A lot better, where's Lucas?"
"I don't know, last time I saw him he was in here with you"
"You didn't page him downstairs?" Brooke asked knowing she had clearly heard Lucas say it was Karen. She had some pain meds in her but not that much, at least she didn't think it was that much.
"I fell asleep actually. You look so much better"
"Yea, so you didn't page him?"
"No" Karen said just as confused as Brooke.
"Ok then"
"So, I know you haven't really had these sorts of things on your mind. But have you thought of any names for the baby?"
"To tell you the truth, not one" Brooke laughed. In fact she'd almost completely forgotten about little stuff like that. Names were probably important, and so were a lot of other things Brooke hadn't even had the time to think about right now.
"That's ok, you still have a while"
"Thank god"
"Scared you pretty bad huh?" Karen asked seeing the fear in Brooke's eyes. As bad as it sounded, sometimes people in Brooke's situation needed little scares like this to happen, to make them realize what they had.
"A lot worse than I thought it would, hey where's my ice cream?" Brooke whined seeing Lucas come into the room empty handed. She had really been looking forward to that ice cream too.
"I found something even better"
"What?"
"You have to guess" Lucas smiled. She didn't like that smile. Usually that was his "I got you something I think is really awesome, when really you wont like it" smile.
"Lucas, seriously? Are you going to make me do this?"
"Yep"
"Your sick sick fiancé, who is having your baby might I add. Just give it to me" Brooke whined, hoping he was maybe just hiding her ice cream outside, with maybe some really hot male nurse to give her a sponge bath. She could definitely deal with that.
"Nope"
"Ugh, fine. Um, some new coach wedges"
"Because they definitely sell those in the ER" Lucas laughed checking to make sure Ella was still standing out of site.
"Um, some glove chickens"
"Nope"
"Lucas this is cruel" Brooke whined even louder not seeing the point. Her ice cream was going to melt if that's what it was, and then she was going to hurt him seriously bad. Or better yet, she'd have her hott male nurse fight Lucas shirtless. Lucas would probably win but that was ok.
"How do you feel about pink casts?"
"Pink casts? Lucas I think this lack of sleep is, Oh my god" Brooke shrieked almost pulling her IV out she sat up so fast. Maybe she was dreaming, or maybe they had pumped her seriously full of pain meds to the point of hallucination.
"I'm partial to blue but"
"What did you do, kidnap her?"
"I falled down" Ella laughed as Lucas put her on the bed next to Brooke.
"Those crackwhores! What did they do to you baby?" Brooke cried pulling the little girl into her arms.
"Actually she did it to herself, jumping from a sink into the bath tub"
"Uh huh"
"Its pwink" Ella smiled pointing out the obvious to Brooke. This was when being pregnant and hormonal caught up her and she could feel her eyes start to fill with tears.
"I see that, I missed you!"
"I crwied"
"Me too. Where are Richard and Carina?" Brooke asked hoping Lucas would say dead, or better yet, suffering a slow death somewhere cark and painful.
"DC or something?"
"Awre you sick?"
"I think the baby missed you too much" Brooke smiled kissing Ella on the forehead.
"Pwoor baby"
"They'll probably take her back wont they"
"Probably, unless we called Marshall right now and told him everything. Even then there's no guarantee" Lucas sighed knowing this probably wouldn't last but so long. But at least this time they would be prepared, and have the chance to say bye if they had too.
"Maybe they just wont come back from DC"
"We can always hope"
