Chapter Thirteen – Relationship Rut

A month or so had passed since Matty's accident and he had made a strong recovery. After a little over a week in hospital, he could fly home to New York and a week after that he was back at school. He was also back to being his normal, fearless self and was desperately trying to bargain with Victoria to let him back on his skateboard but was having little success. He did manage to convince his mother to let him ride his bike through central park, where there wasn't a car in sight, but it took a lot of bargaining. He knew he had to be careful though. The accident in a way had changed him, but at his core he was still ready for adventure.

Brooke was also doing good. She and Julian were in a good place following his little love confession a month ago. While he still hadn't said I love you, Brooke could see how he felt in his actions every day. He was always round at the house and Brooke always managed to weasel her way on to his surgeries. He was good for her and everybody could see it, but those closest to Brooke could also see that there was something not quite right about her. Ever since things ended with Lucas, it was like a light inside of her had gone out. They knew Brooke would never admit to missing him, even as a friend, but they could all see it. She may have been enjoying her time with Julian, but it just wasn't the same.

Ted and Kate had also been silently struggling. Ted was still desperately trying to convince Kate to make the move to New York, but he wasn't having any luck. Ever since Matty's accident, Ted had been even more convinced he wanted to go. He felt like he hadn't been the father his youngest son deserved since he'd been in Raleigh for 12 years, so he wanted to make up for lost time in case time escaped away from them before they knew it. Eventually, Kate had had enough and when Ted was going to visit Matty and see where he could potentially be working in his new job, Kate told him to just stay there and not bother coming back – so he left.

"Kate" Brooke called over to her in the hospital lobby the day after Ted had left. "Why did dad leave a voicemail for me saying he was in New York and would be staying there for the foreseeable future?"

"He took the job and I told him to go." Kate replied with a shrug.

"In the middle of the night?!" Brooke asked, questioning how she could be so blasé about the whole thing. Brooke had always suspected that the reason Kate fit in with the Davis clan was that she was just as emotionally unavailable as the rest of them. This particular incident was proving her point.

"Yes. In the middle of the night. I told him to go and he did. We are not going to have a fight about this, if he wanted to see you before he went, he would have." Kate snapped.

Brooke clenched her jaw and let out a breath "That's real nice Kate. Always thinking of others before yourself." She said through her teeth before walking away. She wasn't necessarily mad that her dad had left, she was just mad that it was kept from her. She was also jealous that her whole family was now in New York without her. Though, she knew she had a lot to be grateful for here. It would just be a weird adjustment not seeing her dad every day. It didn't seem that long ago that she really resented him for divorcing her mother and marrying Kate. She was a teenager, she couldn't understand how he could move on so soon.

She remembered one particular day in New York where things hit the fan. It was the week before Ted was due to fly out to Raleigh to marry Kate and live there permanently. He had been travelling back and forwards for work, but now he had secured a permanent job at Raleigh med and that was that.

Brooke on the other hand was struggling to accept it all. She was letting her anger get the better of her. She was angry that her parents pretty much hated each other, she was angry that they were barely around while she was growing up, she was angry that Ted had moved on so quickly. She was just so angry.

** 12 years ago**

Brooke sneakily made her way into ER of the hospital her parent's worked at and hid out of sight. The last thing she needed was an over keen nurse wanting to look at the large gash on her arm or worse; her parents. She had let her angry over her father's departure get the better of her and had smashed a glass in anger, causing a bit to get caught in her arm and leave a large gash.

As she looked around for someone she could trust to help her, she spotted her Uncle Kirk walk by.

"psst...Kirk!" She said in a whispered shout. "Kirk!" He still didn't see her. "God KIRK WALKER!" she shouted a little louder than intended, but she got his attention.

He walked over to her. "Hey, what's up Cookie?" He asked he asked with a smile, a little confused as to why she was hiding behind a pillar.

She held up her bleeding arm and sighed. "I need your help."

Kirk soon ushered her into a side room and began stitching up her arm. Brooke was glad that Kirk was the person she found because she knew she would be sewed up like a pro.

"This is pretty deep Cookie, what happened?" He asked concerned for his goddaughter.

"I just got a bit mad... smashed a mirror, a bit of the glass got caught in my arm." She said as if it was nothing.

"Ouch... I'm guessing the reason you didn't go to your very capable surgical parents was because they are the reason you're mad?" Kirk asked deciding to be shrink as well as surgeon.

"I don't want to talk about it." Brooke said quickly brushing Kirk off.

"Ok... as long as you know that just because they're not together doesn't mean that they don't love you..." Kirk said hoping to get through to the girl.

But it was of no avail, "Well they certainly have a funny way of showing it… and not two weeks ago you were telling me that my parents screwed me up." Brooke said, recalling a conversation they had recently had. He had been a little tipsy after a few drinks with Ted and had cynically commented that all parents screw their kids up – and Brooke and her brothers were no exception. Over the years Brooke had begun to think Kirk was right, though she thought it was childish to blame her parents for her own problems.

"They can still love you and screw you up…"

At that moment, Victoria burst into the room, clearly unimpressed with the sight before her.

"Kirk could you leave me alone with my daughter please, I can finish up here." Victoria said as Kirk sheepishly handed her the needle and making a quick escape.

Victoria sat down and began to stitch. As Brooke went to protest her mother being here, she quickly cut her off.

"No, you're not going to say a word. I'm going to do the talking here. I don't know what happened, I don't want to know what happened, but I'm going to take a guess that it was out of anger for what happened between me and your father which is not ok." She began as Brooke winced at the stitches going in. "I know that you are hurting, we are all hurting, but getting angry to an extent that you hurt yourself? It's not worth this amount of pain. We're not together Brooke, but we're all still here, we're still a family. An unconventional one but... a family and we will always be there for you. You need to put on a brave face and accept that you are so very loved and that everything will be ok, otherwise you're going to go down a path that you will regret and break everyone's hearts. Everything will be ok." Victoria finished.

She couldn't remember another time when she spilled her feelings to her daughter so much. Brooke needed to hear this, even if she didn't take it now, she would need it in the long run. Victoria wasn't convinced Brooke would believe a word coming out her mouth, but it was true and she prayed that as Brooke grew older she would appreciate Victoria's words. Victoria finished up her stitches and began to fill in some information on a chart, not realising that her daughter's blood was boiling with rage and tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"You didn't even fight for him." Brooke said to her mother forcefully.

"What?" Victoria asked putting down her pen.

"You let him slip away from you, you pushed and you pushed until he'd had enough! He walked out and he found someone else and it's just so shitty mom. It's so shitty that you couldn't keep our family together!" Brooke said of her point of view on the situation. She didn't blame her mother entirely for the whole thing, but that was who she was talking to right now, so that was who she was going to lash out at.

"I realised a long time ago that your father didn't love me the way he did in the past and I just needed to accept that." Victoria responded as she stood defiantly in front of her daughter. There was no way she was going to let Brooke see her break. Ted was a distant man – but Victoria was a stubborn woman. They clashed and they couldn't communicate and it led to their downfall and their severe dislike of one another.

"So what? You decided you would just hurt him as some sort of revenge for not loving you how you wanted to be loved?" Brooke exclaimed not understanding her mother's actions.

"Yes, maybe there was an aspect of revenge there and at that moment I thought he was a sanctimonious bastard that deserved whatever hell he had coming. We both messed up to measures that we can't fix, but that doesn't mean that you do not have two parents that you can rely on. This isn't your war Brooke, so don't hold a grudge. Not against me or your father." Victoria said sternly, her voice rattling slightly.

"Sure, it's adult stuff, right? Only really matters for those directly involved?" Brooke spat bitterly as she stepped off the exam room bed.

"That is not what I meant..." Victoria began.

"Whatever mom, I'm going to Harry's. That is if he's still there and hasn't taken off again." Brooke said. Her brother had a nasty habit of taking off when things got hard. Brooke swiftly left the room, but Victoria wasn't prepared to let her daughter leave like that and rushed out after her.

As Brooke left the ER, Ted walked in her direction and saw the bandages on her arm.

"Wow what happened to your arm?" He said stopping her in her tracks.

"Nothing." Brooke said bluntly as she tried to manoeuvre past him.

"Well it's clearly not nothing..."

"Just leave me alone!" Brooke snapped at Ted.

"Brooke do not speak to your father that away." Victoria warned.

"Oh, so now you decide to try and be a parent?" Brooke bit back at Victoria.

"Brooke you are making a scene." Ted forced from under his breath as everyone stopped to look at them.

Brooke scoffed. "Your whole life is a damn soap opera showcased for everyone to see and I'm making a scene?! You're the ones performing a whole frickin play!"

"What do you want from us Brooke?" Victoria said frustrated. She had tried so hard but to no avail.

Brooke backed away from her parents towards the door. "I want my family back." She admitted before swiftly leaving.

Ted wasn't prepared to let her walk away this time and swiftly followed her to the lobby of the hospital.

"Hey! We need to talk." He called after her angrily.

"Great, you're using your angry voice, which is ironic considering you have nothing to be angry about." Brooke said with a scoff.

"Stop walking and look at me." Ted demanded.

"No can do."

"Brooke Penelope Davis I am your father, you will turn around and you will talk to me."

"You don't even know the meaning of the word father—"

"Show me some respect dammit!" Ted shouted as Brooke quickly turned on her heel.

"How about you earn it?! You—you're pathetic. Your family were walking around New York like ghosts. Shadows of our former selves and you were walking around Raleigh with a dirty smile on your face. You don't deserve my respect. You don't deserve Harry's. You don't deserve Matty's and you sure as hell don't deserve mom's." She spat bitterly. It wasn't just Victoria that she had a problem with.

"Your mother did—"

Brooke cut him off; "You're not going to stand here and make excuses. You were never committed to making this work with mom in the first place. Dad, I didn't want you to be sad. I wanted you to want your life and I'm sorry that we weren't enough for you." She said through her tears.

"Brooke—"

"So please. Don't stand here and demand anything from me. You have no right." She said quietly before turning and leaving a guilty Ted in her wake.

Brooke had made amends with her dad in the aftermath of their hospital showdown, but it wasn't until she moved to Raleigh herself that they really made amends and built a strong relationship with him. It was the kind of relationship she wished she'd had with her dad growing up. She was terrified to lose it, which was why she felt she was being so harsh on Kate. She was terrified to lose the family she didn't even appreciate she had.

She made her way to the stairwell of the hospital and sat for 10 minutes before Lucas walked through, surprised to see her sitting there.

"Seeking a moment of solitude?" he asked as he sat beside her.

"Yeah. I can tell this day is going to be a long one..."

"What's up?" he asked softly.

"When I was 16, I watched my family fall apart. We weren't the tightest of units but suddenly – we were nothing at all. It took me a while to come to terms with the destruction of my life, but I embraced this new family that I got. I learned to even love it. I got a great step-father and an insane step-mother who drives me nuts most of the time… but a step-mother who cares about me. And now—now I can see it falling apart right in front of me. Again. I don't want to lose it." She confessed.

Brooke rarely talked about her life before New York. She still found it difficult that she could never have it back. But Lucas knew she had grown to appreciate the life she made here. He also recognised that the break down of her family had affected Brooke in more ways that she'd realised. No wonder she was so scared of relationships – nothing ever lasted in her life.

"If it's as special as you say it is, then there's no way everyone else doesn't see it that way. They won't let it go without a fight. All they can do is fight." He advised.

"How come you always know to say the right thing?" she asked in disbelief. Despite everything, he still knew how to make her feel better.

"I want to do right by you." He said sincerely as Brooke gazed at him for a minute, before she turned her head away from him, knowing if she looked any further in his eyes, she wouldn't want to stop.

After being hazed by Brooke for the rest of the day, Kate realised that this wasn't something she should just brush under the rug. This project in New York meant a lot to Ted and she should be willing to compromise with him and find a solution. 12 years of marriage had to mean something, right? So, she decided to fly out to New York for the weekend to talk to Ted and try and find a happy medium. At the very least, she was also excited to spend some time with her husband. Brooke was thrilled when Kate told her she was going out there. She was hopeful that they could put their stubbornness aside and make it work. As difficult as Kate could be, Brooke could see that she mad her dad happy and that was all she wanted for him.

However, as Brooke made her way into the hospital the following Monday, she was on the war path. She had her suspicions that Kate never made it to New York in the end. In fact, it was more than suspicions, she was certain she bailed—and she didn't know what to think.

As she stood by the elevator, ready to hunt Kate down and find out the truth, the doors opened and Lucas appeared.

"Brooke! There she is." Lucas greeted happily as he approached a confused Brooke in the hallway. "Good weekend?" he asked as he stepped off the elevator.

"Uh… yeah, it—it was fine" she said, a little confused as to why he was in such a good mood.

"An exciting one I'm sure, but probably not as exciting as what I have planned for you today." He said as he handed her the tablet of charts. Shit. Brooke thought. She was on Lucas' service? Fantastic, just when she thought her day couldn't get much worse, it had done so before it had even begun.

Brooke scrolled through them and grimaced; "Breast enhancements and nose jobs?" she asked, unimpressed.

"Oh, you need to fix that attitude… today is all about instilling confidence. Changing lives and at the end, you just might get an invite to join me in plastics." He said with a wide smile as Brooke raised her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry… you want me to be your trainee? You want to be my Kirk Walker?" she asked, just to clarify that Lucas had the right person. Last time she checked, they were on no speaking terms.

"No, we already had a Kirk Walker, I want to be the next best thing." He clarified, knowing that no one could replace Kirk Walker—especially to his goddaughter.

"Lucas, we agreed to stay out of each other's way, how did you think this would be a good idea?" Brooke asked seriously as she handed the tablet back to him. He may have provided some comfort to her the other day, but she knew it probably wasn't a good idea to allow him into her life any further.

"Before everything that went down, we were friends Brooke and I'd like for us to get there again. However long it takes." He said sincerely.

"And you think having me as part of this dynamic duo you're trying to recreate is the way forward?" she asked, completely sceptical of the idea.

"You're a hell of a doctor. Probably the best in your year, it's a race to snatch you up" Lucas said with a smile. Brooke was a great surgeon and every department was looking to snatch her into their speciality.

Brooke sniggered; "As flattered as I am—"

"Oh come on, you're on my service today anyway, so let's just see how things go, then we can revisit the whole plastics thing." He proposed.

Brooke scrunched up her nose; "I think you may have to let that dream die Lucas…"

As Lucas was about to try and convince her further, Kate walked past. When she spotted Brooke, she froze momentarily before giving her a tight-lipped, awkward smile and walking on.

"I have to go" Brooke said to Lucas.

"Uh, nose jobs and boob enhancements await you Davis!" Lucas called as Brooke walked away.

"I know, postpone my big day in plastics just for like 10 minutes, I'll be back!" she assured him as Lucas sighed and watched her chase after Kate.

She soon managed to catch her just as she was about to get on the elevator at the opposite end of the lobby.

"Hey" Brooke greeted as she got on the elevator and Kate looked freaked. Like she had something to hide. Brooke then hit the button and stood beside her step mother.

"Hi" Kate replied quietly.

Brooke turned around to look at her and crossed her arms; "How was your weekend? In New York? With your husband?" she asked.

"It was fun… why are you addressing him as my 'husband'?" Kate asked. He was her dad after all, she didn't need to talk about him like he was a stranger.

Brooke shrugged; "Just making sure you still knew who he was." She said cryptically.

Kate sighed, not in the mood for whatever game Brooke was trying to play. "I'm a little exhausted you know" she said as she elevator doors opened again, and Rachel got on.

"But the good kind of exhausted, right?" Rachel asked with a smirk.

Brooke grimaced; "Rachel, gross, that's my dad."

"Did we even push the button cause it's just—" Kate said as she pressed the button multiple times, desperate to get out of this situation.

As if this situation couldn't get any worse, the doors opened again, and Nathan got on.

"Welcome back Dr. Grant" He said with a smile, having heard all about the weekend from Brooke. Kate looked between the three residents nervously. Nathan and Rachel were like siblings to Brooke, they'd probably come for her just as fiercely as Brooke would.

"Kate was just about to tell us about her weekend with my dad." Brooke informed him as Kate squirmed. Brooke was on to her, she just knew it.

"Oh really?" Nathan asked, not sure that he wanted to know about it...

Thankfully for Kate, the elevator doors opened, and she quickly got off. "I gotta run!" she said as the others followed her out and watched her literally sprint away from them.

Brooke looked at her friends suspiciously before they all quickly huddled round; "Has Kate said anything to anybody about her weekend?"

"I haven't heard anything." Rachel said as Nathan agreed.

"Something's not right and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." Brooke said with certainty.

Rachel smirked, "Oh Brookie, when you're onto something you know the truth will get out."

"Exactly. She cannot pull the wool over Brooke Penelope Davis' eyes, I will not be side tracked on this mission to find out about this weekend."

Nathan quirked an eyebrow, "Really? You won't be side tracked? Not even by… Lucas?"

Brooke glared, "What does Lucas have to do with any of this?"

"Nothing… he just told me that he's going to try and recruit you into plastics."

Brooke rolled her eyes, "He told you about that? What is his deal anyway, I can't believe he actually would want to work with me."

"Brooke, the guy is desperate to be your friend again. Despite contrary belief – he isn't a bad guy, he just made a mistake. Are you really going to punish him for the rest of his life?" Nathan asked.

"… I kind of hate that you're friends." Brooke grumbled as she folded her arms and pouted. "And I am not punishing him, it's called self-care. I'm recognising that he makes my life difficult and I am distancing myself."

"Last time I checked Brookie, he was one of the best things to ever happen to you" Rachel reasoned.

Brooke's mouth fell open in disbelief, "Rachel!" she exclaimed as she smacked her friend's arm. "I cannot believe you are advocating for him! Last time I checked you were ready to castrate him if he even so much as looked at me."

"I know and if that's what you want I'll still hold on to that grudge" Rachel said holding her hands up. She was prepared to defend her friend through thick and thin, but she had a funny feeling that Brooke was ready to let her resentment go too. "Look, you have Julian, you're in a good place – what's the harm on being on good professional terms with Lucas?"

Brooke didn't know what to respond, and thankfully she didn't have to as she got a text from Lucas telling her she needed to come for rounds now. She sighed and grimaced at her friends before sulking away, not excited for what the day had to hold.

After rounding on Lucas' patients, Brooke made her way into their first surgery. It was a nose job on a 50 year old woman, and Brooke couldn't quite understand why this woman was wanting to change her nose. From what she could see it was a perfectly fine nose.

"And we'll use the rasp to smooth out the bridge…" Lucas explained as Brooke observed and aided his surgery.

"She could come out looking like a completely different person." Brooke mumbled. If anything, she figured she was probably fighting against this because she didn't want to have to work under Lucas for any longer than necessary.

"I fixed your nose when Peyton broke it, you don't look any different." Lucas reminded her.

"That was because a) I threatened you and b) all you had to do was reset it, not completely reassign it." Brooke argued.

"Yeah, definitely nothing to do with my skill and technique…" Lucas boasted.

Brooke rolled her eyes, "Get your head out of your ass Scott."

Lucas chuckled, "I learned from the best."

"Kirk may be a good surgeon, but his morals are not something that should be taken on board." Brooke argued. As much as she loved her godfather, he really wasn't the best role model.

"I don't know. If Kirk was doing this surgery, he would say that it was great that this patient could now look in the mirror and by happy with what she saw. That doesn't sound like some bad morals to me."

"But what if it's not her nose that makes her unhappy? What if it's another part of her life and she just trying to hide behind her image?" Brooke questioned.

"I know my patients have made the right choice because I have long conversations with them. I listen, I understand them and their motives and the people in their lives. Plastics isn't just about cutting into someone and changing how they look. It's listening to a patient's needs with an open heart and making them feel good." Lucas argued. "You may not always agree with what they're doing, but it's not your decision to make."

Brooke was silenced by Lucas' response. Maybe she had been a little unfair about plastics. She also wondered if she was being unfair to Kate before she'd even heard all the story. Her dad's marriage wasn't hers to pass judgement on and Kate's decisions weren't something she had to agree with, but she should be a good daughter and listen. Maybe that's all Kate needed – someone to listen.

After finishing the surgery, Brooke and Lucas were scrubbing out in silence. They really didn't know if small talk was even on the cards for them. Since Lucas was so determined to break them out of this weird place they were in, he decided to take the first step.

"That was good work today Brooke." He complimented as Brooke nodded and turned off the tap.

"Thanks…" she said awkwardly, turning away from him and drying her hands.

"Even if you did run away from me at the start…" He teased.

"Well, I'm just so in demand, what can I say?" Brooke joked. She didn't think it was necessary to fill him in on her family drama. It wasn't his responsibility to listen and care anymore.

Lucas smirked; "So, you still willing to be a part of a dynamic plastics duo? Take Raleigh Med by storm?" he asked.

Brooke stood taller, hating that she was admitting this, but she replied with, "I won't rule it out."

"I'll take it… what about the friends thing?" he asked more cautiously.

Brooke paused for a moment. They had actually made it through the day without making sly digs at each other. They managed to stay focused on work, they managed to have a few laughs. Maybe being friends wasn't completely out of the question. "… I won't rule it out either." She said quietly as she walked away, leaving Lucas with a smile on his face.

Brooke made her way round to the attendings lounge to find Kate and try to talk to her about everything. She wasn't sure how she was going to approach it, but she hoped the right thing would come to her in the moment.

She was glad when she got to the lounge that Kate was there alone, getting ready to go home. She knocked lightly on the door as Kate's head shot up and she just stared a Brooke, knowing that this conversation might not go well.

"Kate, I'm a terrible liar and I'm also not one to beat around the bush so I'm just going to come out with it- you packed a suitcase full of lingerie and then you went away for the weekend."

"Yeah, I—"

"Dad called me three times Kate." Brooke quickly told her before she told another lie. "He was asking where you were. Meanwhile, you texted me telling me what a great time you were having. So whatever or whoever you were doing this weekend—this is my dad we're talking about. I am not on your side and I hate lying." She made clear. She guessed she was going to play hardball after all.

"I'm not cheating on my husband." Kate said sternly.

"Then where were you?"

"It's really not a big deal—"

"Then why are you being so weird about it?!" Brooke said, cutting Kate off. "You have to tell me something."

"I have to?" Kate said, raising an eyebrow. In her eyes, she didn't owe Brooke anything.

"I lied to my dad for you!" Brooke said in a disgusted tone. She'd told Ted that she must have been caught up with work and her phone died. God, why did everyone in this family have to be so damn stubborn?

"I'm sorry if I put you in a position where you felt that you had to lie for me, but that doesn't make this any of your business."

"Of course this is my business. This is my father, my family. I watched my family fall apart once, I won't do it again." She said through her teeth.

Brooke Davis knew loss. That much about her life was evident. It was categorized by periods of love and periods of loss. One extreme to the next. Kate Grant knew loss too. Right now, she understood why she was angry. Why she felt she deserved an explanation, and she was right to want to know. She was right to know why she lied to her dad. One of her most favourite people in the world.

Kate sat on the arm of the sofa and let out a breath, ready to tell Brooke the truth. "I went to the airport, I got through security, I went up to the gate, they called my boarding group and I just stood there. I froze, I didn't get on the plane. I watched the plane take off from behind the glass, I got in my car and I left. I didn't know how to tell anyone that I didn't get on the plane to visit my husband. So I drove to one of those hotels by the airport." Kate explained.

Brooke looked at her surprised; "And you stayed there all weekend?"

"Yeah."

Brooke nodded. She was angry and she wanted an explanation, but this certainly wasn't the explanation she was expecting.

"You were embarrassed, so you hid. I get it." Brooke said with a shrug, finally calming down a little. She remembered what Lucas had said in the OR. She needed to be patient and listen. Kate was taken aback that Brooke had chosen to be understanding in that moment. It wasn't like her. Or maybe, she just didn't really know the real Brooke, just like Brooke didn't really know the real Kate. They'd never really taken the time after all.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Kate apologised.

"I'm sorry I assumed."

"I don't blame you." Kate said with a scoff. She would have been inclined to assume the worst too.

"Just—talk to him. Please. He calls me every day and he's not going to stop asking me about it until he gets answers and like I said - I hate lying." Brooke encouraged softly.

Kate was surprised that she was still lying for her. The Brooke she knew would have been quick to undermine Kate. Maybe she had been wrong about her. Maybe Brooke cared about her relationship with Ted more than she realised.

I love that little moment in the stairwell... it's sweet. I hope you liked it too! Let me know your thoughts on the chapter in the reviews.

Next chapter, Brooke reminds Kate just how much Ted loves her, Julian's parents arrive in town, Julian has an important question to ask and Brooke questions how it should feel to love someone...