So, a lot of requests in the reviews for Brulian not to be a thing... Julian serves a great purpose in this story in helping Brooke see what she deserves, but also in recognising how it should really feel when you are hopelessly in love with someone, and that's not necessarily how she feels about Julian... so bare with it for now as goodness in the form of Brucas is coming :)

Also - if me updating everyday is moving to fast for people, please just let me know and I can leave more time between chapters! I want to make sure everyone has a chance to read before I move on.

In this chapter, Kate and Brooke get into some medical trouble and Brooke loses her cool with Lucas, leading to a kind of heartbreaking moment at the end... enjoy!

Chapter Eleven – Breaking Free

"Dr. Davis" Brooke heard someone call as she turned around and saw Kate walking towards her. "We need to talk" she said as Brooke looked at her, a little weirded out and followed into the empty hospital stairwell.

"Ok, this is weird… what's going on?" Brooke asked as Kate shifted uncomfortably.

"You know Benji Lannister, right?" Kate asked as she handed Brooke the 8-year-old boy's file. He had some problems with his immune system that meant he spent a lot of time in isolation to avoid easily catching something. It had gotten particularly bad recently and he had been trapped in a bubble in the hospital for the past 4 weeks, unable to touch his parents unless through a sterile suit. Kate had been working for weeks to find him a cure and Brooke had done a lot of wok in the lab with her too. They come close to something a number of times, but nothing ever seemed to stick.

"Yeah, sweet kid, how's he doing?" Brooke asked sincerely.

"He's doing better because I found the answer to his illness." Kate said hopefully.

"Seriously? Kate that's amazing, you've worked so hard on this." Brooke said, trying to encourage her, but for some reason Kate looked shifty. "But… his parents won't let you treat him, they don't want their son to be an experiment." Brooke reminded her.

"Look at his blood results" Kate said as she flipped Benji's chart over to look at, ignoring Brooke's confusion over their sudden change of heart.

Brooke looked back at the charts and furrowed her eyebrows at the results. How was it possible that he was making a miraculous recovery? His results had almost flipped over night.

"You're testing his white blood cell differential." Brooke observed. This wasn't a normal test, unless… she wouldn't, would she?

"I'm running many tests, yes."

Brooke looked up at Kate, starting to piece everything together; "His T cell count is up. A boy with no immune system grew 500 T cells over-night?" this particular lymphocyte was virtually non-existent in Benji, this wasn't just a miracle. "You administered your medicine without telling his parents, didn't you?" Brooke asked, completely shocked that perfect Kate Grant would step even one toe out of line.

"And it worked!" Kate quickly defended.

"Yeah… it's working." Brooke said in amazement. In the moment, she completely forgot that what Kate did could cause a shit tonne of problems if Benji's parents found out, all because it worked. Kate had developed something revolutionary.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Kate said proudly as she walked away, trying to hide her smile.

"Wait!" Brooke called as she followed her back into the hospital. "Why are you telling me this? You're not trying to make me a scape goat for you, are you? Cause that's some serious Meredith Blake level step-mother crap and I will not stand by that—"

"No Brooke, I told you because you are a part of this treatment. You helped get Benji better, your input was crucial in developing this treatment and I wanted you to know that." Kate said as Brooke looked taken aback by Kate's kindness. Were they finally having a break through after all this time?

"Oh, well… thank you." Brooke said awkwardly.

Kate nodded her head. "And don't worry, there will be no need for a scape goat, because I am coming clean about everything."

Brooke raised her eyebrows, "You're kidding, right? They're going to lose their minds Kate. You did this without telling them—"

"But I'm also getting their son out of that bubble. That's got to count for something." Kate said. "I can't lie to them, they need to know the truth about the treatment… but I won't bring you into any of this, I promise. I just have to hope that they'll see I did the right thing because their son is better and he is going home today."

Benji's parents did not take the news as well as Kate hoped. They went straight to the Ted, who got Lucas and legal involved in trying to fix this mess. It was moments like this that Lucas cursed his mother for buying him this hospital. Kate tried to keep Brooke out of it, but Lucas and Ted weren't stupid. They knew instantly that Brooke knew and didn't report it and was therefore in the thick of it all. While she wasn't in as much trouble as Kate was, there could still be serious consequences—and it didn't bode well for the firing that was happening.

While Kate was stuck with legal in one of the conference rooms, Brooke and Lucas decided to go down to the ICU to see Benji's parents and see if they could talk this through. They hoped to make them see that what Kate did wasn't an ego trip to prove her treatment worked, but rather make Benji well again so he could be reunited with his parents.

"How do we know that Dr. Grant isn't lying about his test results to hide her failure?" his mother angrily argued. There was no reason whatsoever for this woman to trust Kate or Brooke after they went behind her back.

"We can't trust that it's safe, what if we get him home and something happens?" his father added.

"I understand your concerns, but I ran some new labs myself—"

"Are you a parent, Dr. Scott?" his father interrupted.

Lucas shook his head, "No. I'm not… but I know if I ever get the privilege of being a father, I wouldn't react to kindly to someone taking my child's life in their hands without me knowing about it… but Dr. Grant didn't do this carelessly. She did this because she cared. She wanted nothing more than Benji to get better and she had the solution. She was trying to do the right thing."

Brooke felt a little twinge in her heart at Lucas' words. They were thoughtful and considerate to Benji, his parents and to Kate. He'd always been good at saying the right thing and it was something she missed about him. Over the past while, however, she had grown to accept that there would probably always be a little hole in her heart where Lucas used to be.

Lucas could feel Brooke's eyes boring into the back of his head as he spoke. Even without looking at her he could feel her presence and it soothed him. They both shook their thoughts of each other out of their heads and tried to focus on the situation at hand.

"If we lost him, I wouldn't stop until she was behind bars." His father said through his teeth, just as Ted walked around the corner and Kate lurked behind them, not wanting to make them feel more uncomfortable.

Brooke didn't know what came over her in that moment as she looked between Kate and Benji's parents, but she found herself jumping in to save Kate. It wasn't fair that she was going to be punished for saving this little boy's life.

"It's wasn't Dr. Grant's fault. She didn't do anything wrong. It was my fault he got the treatment. I forgot to tell her that you hadn't given your consent and she went ahead and did it and when I told her, she tried to cover for me—" Brooke lied. Brooke had been the one they had told after all, the lie fit perfectly together.

"You forgot? You just forgot?!" his father exclaimed.

Lucas studied Brooke for a moment. He knew her pretty well and he didn't buy this story one bit. For starters, she was just too good to lie and Brooke was the best of the best— she would never just forget something like this. For now, he could only take her word for it.

"Please, Dr. Davis is a resident, a trainee—" Lucas began began.

Ted jumped in, determined to protect his daughter and his wife "And if you want to yell at someone—"

"In what world does that make it ok? My son could have died, and you're just going to stand there and tell me that it's ok because it would have been a mistake?!"

"David…" Benji's mother suddenly said. She looked a lot calmer than she was before as she sat down on one of the chairs behind her. "David our boy is alive. He is healthy and we can take him home. Maybe we should just… go home." She said quietly. She soon realised among all the shouting that all that mattered was their son – and he was here and he was ok.

Benji's father soon relented. They let Benji out of the bubble, gave him his meds and sent him home. As soon as the left, Ted had turned to Kate and Brooke, his face like thunder.

"My office, now." He said through his teeth as he stormed ahead of them while they sheepishly followed behind.

"She is lying!" Kate shouted to Ted as Brooke stood there awkwardly. She felt like she was back at school and here she was, standing in the principal's office, ready to take her punishment. However, Kate was not about to let her take the fall for this. Everybody knew Brooke was lying, but by punishing Brooke and believing her tale, Ted could save Kate's job.

"Kate that is enough. I understand you wanted to protect Brooke, but you should not have let it go this far!" Ted replied.

"You're taking her word over mine?!" she asked in disbelief.

"It is over Kate. They agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Brooke receiving a one-week disciplinary suspension. They have gone home. You should both do the same." Ted insisted, before leaving the room.

Kate quickly turned and glared at Brooke "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Kate could you please get your head out of your ass for five minutes and realise what we just did for you?!" Brooke exclaimed. "Dad knows me, he knows I am lying but he also knows that if you got fired over this, no one would benefit from this treatment the way Benji did. You were going to go down for this Kate and you are too good to lose." Brooke complimented as Kate fell silent, finally understanding what Brooke had just done for her. "You knew it could happen, but you were willing to risk everything for that little boy. What kind of surgeon would I be if I wasn't willing to do the same?"

Kate walked towards Brooke and pulled her in for a hug. In the 12 years that they had known each other, they had never once hugged each other. Brooke froze for a minute before hugging Kate back. It was a rare moment of mutual admiration and respect. They only hoped things could continue this way.

After speaking with Kate, Brooke made her way round to the resident's lounge to gather her things. She knew in the long run that helping Kate out in this way was the right thing to do, but she knew everyone had seen through her lie. Luckily for her no one was prepared to say anything—nobody except Lucas. He walked into the lounge just as she zipped up her boots and put his hands in his the pockets of his white coat.

"You're good Brooke."

Brooke turned around and looked at him; "Excuse me?"

"You're good. A good person, a good doctor… a great doctor actually, the best we've got." He complimented.

"Uh… thanks?" she said, not sure where he was going with this.

"You wouldn't forget something like that. You wouldn't forget to tell Kate."

"Well I did. It happened, so—" Brooke said with a shrug, zipping up her bag and hanging her lab coat up.

"I know you think you've done something noble—"

Brooke crossed her arms and interrupted him. She wasn't about to let him scold her. "I got suspended for one week, Dr. Grant would have been fired, there is no noble choice here, just the right one—"

"You're lucky it was only a week." Lucas said. He was right, it could have been much worse for her. It was a gamble to take the blame.

"Yeah well, I don't know why you care Lucas. You're not my boyfriend. Hell, we're not even friends so… why don't you head home to your best buddy turned girlfriend." She bit as she lifted her bag and tried to walk away, but Lucas held her back, so they were standing side by side.

"Are you seriously going to be that petty?" he asked.

"I don't know what your problem is Lucas, but you can't seem to get it into your head that I don't want you in my life, I don't want you anywhere near me and I sure as hell don't want you coming in here and telling me that I was wrong or thinking that you need to save me!" she exclaimed. She couldn't understand why he had to tell her that Julian would be crazy not to like her or that she should be more careful with her career. Who did he think he was to her? He wasn't her knight in shining armour, she didn't need to be saved. "Maybe that was a cheap dig at your decisions, but you're the one who came in here and started this fight. So don't you dare try and make me look like the bad guy." She said sternly. She was not about to let Lucas call her petty.

"Brooke, I—" he said softly but Brooke took a step back from him and ran her hand through her hair, not wanting to hear his excuses or his attempt at being nice to her.

"God, why won't you let me get on with my life?" she asked quietly as her eyes filled with tears.

"Just because I chose Peyton doesn't mean that I didn't love you! I care about you and the choices you make—" he exclaimed.

Brooke shook her head; "You—you didn't love me. If you loved me, you wouldn't have done that to me. I should have known better in all honestly. But now, I have someone that I know would never hurt me like that and who it doesn't hurt to love" she said proudly of Julian. Truthfully, she didn't know if that was the case cause she didn't know him well enough, but right now, she trusted him more than she could ever trust Lucas.

Lucas gulped, getting more emotional in this situation than he expected to. "Just because it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean it's good for you." He told her honestly. Easy didn't necessarily mean good—and she would have been the first to tell someone that.

"You don't know what's good for me. You don't get to pretend you know either. So like I said. Go home to your girlfriend Lucas." She repeated, before pushing straight past him and out the door.

"You're in a bad mood" Nathan observed as he approached Brooke in the hallway a week later. She was back from her suspension and ready to put it all behind her and move forward. She didn't want to talk to anybody about it and she especially didn't want to talk to Lucas about anything. It was bad enough that she had to work with him, so she didn't need him trying to look out for her and fail in doing so.

"Thank you Captain Obvious…" She replied sarcastically.

"What's your deal?" he asked as Brooke turned to look at him with a sigh.

"I got into a fight with Lucas before I left for my suspension and now that I'm back here, I've been reminded of it." She explained. While she had enjoyed her time off, she really did miss the hospital and was thankful to be back—though she was determined to avoid Lucas at all costs.

"Damn. I thought you were avoiding him."

"I was, but he seems to think that he can keep butting into my life." She said, completely frustrated by the whole thing.

Nathan shrugged; "He loved you."

"No he didn't." Brooke said bluntly. She was a little bit sick of hearing people say that.

"Yes he did. He may have chosen Sawyer, but I saw the way he looked at you—he still looks at you in the same way."

Brooke stopped and looked at Nathan. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she didn't want to hear about how Lucas looked at her. She didn't want to hear about Lucas at all. Why was Nathan speaking up for him?

"I'm just saying. He panicked and made a rash decision with Sawyer cause they never saw through their weird thing—"

"Nathan—"

"They won't last, and he'll realise that he let the best thing in his life slip away." Nathan replied honestly.

"Again, is that supposed to help me?" she questioned. She usually appreciated Nathan's honesty—but not this time. This time he was just screwing with her head. She tried to remind herself that she had a good thing going with Julian, but Nathan wasn't helping.

"Mark my words Davis." He said, before walking away.

What was Nathan trying to achieve by telling her that? She tried to forget about it, but she guessed that would probably be more difficult than she had hoped. She was about to walk away when Lucas walked over and tried to talk to her. "Brooke—"

"Not now Lucas." She said, quickly cutting him off before walking away.

Brooke had been thinking about how she brushed Lucas off all day. She didn't want to hold this grudge against him. She didn't want to feel awkward every time she walked past him, she didn't want to have to push him away every time he came over to make things right. She also didn't want to be his friend, but they needed to find some neutral ground if they were going to continue working together.

As she went to find him and speak to him, she bumped straight into Peyton in an empty hallway. They stood there awkwardly, unsure what to say.

"At least I didn't break your nose this time" Peyton joked as Brooke nodded.

"Yeah that really would have been a killer…" Brooke replied as she folded her arms as if she was trying to protect herself.

"I'm really sorry about that, by the way. I don't think I ever got to say it…" Peyton said.

"It's ok. I guess it makes a good story" Brooke joked in response. Brooke then tried to walk away, but Peyton called back to her.

"You should let him apologise Brooke." She said as Brooke stopped, but remained with her back to Peyton. "This has been killing him what happened."

"It was his choice to feel this way, not mine." Brooke reminded her.

"He knows… but just because he wanted to give us a chance, doesn't mean his feelings for you changed. I'm not an idiot Brooke – I see the way he still looks at you. I feel his distance from me and I can fight that all I want, but it's never going to change until you give him some peace of mind." Peyton reasoned. "I'm not saying he deserves it… but maybe it's the peace you need too." She encouraged, before turning and walking away.

Brooke didn't feel like she owed Lucas anything, but she figured Peyton was probably right. She needed to do this for her. She knew it probably would always hurt, probably even more than she would ever let herself admit, but she needed to put this behind her. She needed to stop being hostile with him.

She soon found him standing at the nurse's station in the ICU and slowly walked towards him as she thought through what she was going to say. She rested her arm on the desk as he realised she was there and turned to look at her, surprised she was approaching him.

"I want you to be happy. I do. I know I am pretty hostile with you but… you broke me Lucas. I hate to admit it because I hate being vulnerable, but I loved you and you broke me. But… despite it all, I don't hate you. A part of me still loves you and I want you to be happy. I would like to think you wanted the same for me." She replied honestly. She hated being vulnerable, but she didn't think there was anything else that she could be in this moment.

"Of course I do." He insisted.

Brooke eyed glistened with tears as she tried to get the next words out; "Ok then—step away. Don't come for quiet chats in the lounge with me because I—I can't take it. Because knowing you care is just another reason for me to keep on loving you and—I don't want to know that. I can't know that. We both have two really special people in our lives… So let's let each other be happy." She said as she let a few tears roll down her cheek. They'd been over for months. Why was this so damn hard?

Lucas gulped and looked away as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He shouldn't care this much. He knew that. "ok" he replied softly as Brooke wiped her tears and walked away from him once more.

I kind of love that moment at the end... like I said before - I'm a sucker for a bit of heartbreak!

Next chapter, the Davis' deal with a difficult accident and Brooke once again turns to Lucas for help...