A/N: Thanks to my beta: Leeese.

Chapter Twenty

Hanging by a Moment

Brooke slowly opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings. Nothing looked familiar. She tried to get up from where she was sitting, but something was keeping her there. Struggling to stand up, she found out that her hands had been tied behind her back. There was confusion as she tried to remember what had happened last night, but her memory was still fuzzy.

As she continued to fight with the ropes, her memory of the previous night's events began to return. Her car had broken down and Cooper had come to the rescue. He had promised to take her home, but that was the only part of the conversation she remembered before she had blacked out.

Was it Cooper who was doing this to her? After all, he had been the last one with her. She shook her head. No, Cooper seemed too nice to do this to her. But then again, he was the one who had caused the family feud between the two Scott families. Brooke also considered the possibility that Dan was the mastermind behind this abduction and Cooper was his partner. She should have known that Dan had lied and had planned something behind his family's back. She just wished it wasn't this.

Either way, Brooke was determined to escape before they could carry out whatever their plans were for her. As she tried to think of an escape plan, she heard the sound of the door unlocking. That only made her work faster. To her relief, she managed to get free from her bonds. Getting up, she rushed to the door. However, she froze when she saw who her captor was. She couldn't believe her eyes. It had to be a dream. There was no way that Ian had kidnapped her. Yet, there he was standing in front of her. "Ian?" she asked flabbergasted. "But you're supposed to be in jail!"

Ian just smirked at her as he walked towards her. "Brooke, I can't tell you how many times I've dreamed of us being together again." Brooke backed away from him as much as she could. She didn't want this bastard anywhere near her. "I know I acted harsh with you during Rachel's party, but it was just because I thought I was going to lose you. When I saw you at the Halloween party, I knew you would feel the same way."

Brooke was confused until she came to the realization that he was Derek. Haley was right. He couldn't have been trusted. She couldn't believe that she had been such a fool. Ian could tell that she had made the connection. "Yes, that's right. I'm the one who crashed your party. I wanted to take you right then and there, but my friends advised against it. They wanted me to wait until after the holidays."

"Friends? What friends?" Brooke asked.

Ian ignored her question. "So I kept an eye on you instead." Brooke then realized her feelings of being followed weren't just her imagination. He had stalked her. "When your dumb boyfriend's parents left for their vacation, I knew that it was the perfect opportunity to carry out my plan. Now we can be together forever."

Brooke was still confused since Cooper was the last person she remembered being with. She then realized that he was involved in her kidnapping and was probably one of his friends who had told him to wait until after the holidays. She couldn't believe that she had ever trusted him.

She didn't know how Rachel had ended up being friends with this creep, but she was now regretting that she had ever met him. He was way too obsessed with her. Trying to get over the shock of who her stalker really was, she didn't even realize that Ian was coming towards her until it was too late. She didn't know what he was planning to do to her, but she knew that she was in more danger than she had first thought.

Ian grabbed her as she tried to kick and hit him, hoping that she would be able to hurt him enough to give her a chance to escape. He just laughed as she tried to fight him. "Brooke, there's no reason to be so difficult. I'm not going to hurt you. I would never do that to you." Brooke knew he was trying to comfort her, but being in Lucas's arms would be the only comfort for her. He dragged her back to the chair before he tied her up again. This time, the ropes were tied tight. "I know it won't be easy for you at first, but you'll get used to living here after awhile."

Brooke couldn't even imagine staying as Ian's prisoner for all time. She wanted to respond, but a gag was placed in her mouth before she could. To her relief, a phone call interrupted the conversation and he answered it. "Hello?" His face became enraged as he heard what the person on the other end said. "What?! Are you fucking kidding me?" Brooke didn't quite know what was happening, but she knew that Ian was pissed off. She could also tell that his partner was trying to calm him down. "Should I move her somewhere else?"

Brooke didn't even have to guess to know who he was talking about. She hoped his partner wouldn't recommend it. Who knows where he would take her next? Of course, she didn't know where she was in the first place. She hoped that she wasn't too far from Tree Hill. It would be harder to find her the further away Tree Hill she was and how early the head start was.

Brooke was horrified when she heard Ian's answer. "I don't want to take any chances. I'm sick of this town anyway." He didn't let his partner answer as he turned to Brooke. "Well, it looks like we're moving out. Why don't you stay here while I pack up our essentials?" he asked. "Then I'll come back for you."

Brooke waited after he left the room to fight with the ropes again. There was no way in hell that she would leave with him, but he had made sure she wasn't going to attempt to escape this time. It was only a matter of moments before Ian returned with a cloth in his hand. He exchanged her gag for the heavily soaked cloth and forced her to breathe the sweet smelling liquid in. Brooke soon fell into unconsciousness.

While Brooke was slipping into dreamland, Dan was finishing up his side of the story to Lucas and the gang. Even Victoria was there. She had flown down as soon as she had heard that her daughter was missing and she had confronted Dan. Dan's guilt was too much for him and decided to come clean to his family.

However, that didn't mean they were happy with him. Lucas was furious at him since he had lied to him only hours earlier when he had asked him if he was involved in Brooke's disappearance. Deb and his children were just as furious.

"Dad, how could you do that to Brooke? She's our friend," Alex exclaimed angrily. She couldn't believe that he had betrayed them like that. "We defended you! And this whole time, you were stabbing us in the back! Why? Because you were jealous of Uncle Keith and Aunt Karen?"

"Why don't you save the lecture until after we find Brooke?" Deb suggested. She had a few words to say to her husband, but her main focus was on Brooke. "Now are you sure you have no idea where Ian is keeping Brooke?"

"No, we always made our business deals at my house," Dan insisted. "But I might know who does." Everyone waited to hear what he had to say. "Cooper wasn't here just for the wedding. He was here to help Ian with getting Brooke."

"That's ridiculous," Deb protested. She couldn't believe that he was accusing her own brother of being part of the kidnapping plot. "He would never get involved with something like this." Yet, she knew in her heart that Cooper had never gotten over the whole love triangle with Keith and Karen. "How are you going to get him to confess?"

"Confess? I'm sure he is checked out of his hotel and on a plane by now," Dan replied. "And he probably warned Ian before he did."

"What does that mean?" Millie asked confused. "He wouldn't hurt her, would he?"

"No, it means that Ian will get out of town and take Brooke somewhere else where he wouldn't have to worry about us finding her," her father explained as they heard the doorbell ringing. Hoping it was the police, Dan went to answer it.

Instead, it was Julian and Rachel. After the gang couldn't find Brooke right away, Haley called Rachel and told her what had happened. Even though they didn't get along, Haley thought that she had the right to know about her best friend. Rachel and Julian had immediately canceled their honeymoon and had scheduled a flight back to Tree Hill.

Julian didn't say anything to Dan as he went past him and into the living room. Rachel was right behind him. Julian spoke up first. "We're so sorry we're late. We got a flight back as soon as we could. How can we help?"

"How much do you know about your friend Ian Banks?" Haley asked.

"Well, he wasn't exactly my friend. He was just a guy I met at one of the fraternity parties I went to last year at Duke," Rachel replied as she turned red. "And we never really talked to each other. We had other things on our minds than getting to know each other. So I didn't know if he was crashing the party or not."

"And I didn't realize this until Rachel showed me a picture of Ian that he used to live in my apartment building," Julian added. "We used to see each other in passing and he did stop by the same day Brooke warned me that she didn't want to see me taunting Lucas and Nathan anymore. He seemed like a nice guy. I had no idea that he was Brooke's stalker until now."

Lucas turned to his brother. "Come on, Nate. We're heading to Cooper's house."

Dan stopped him. "Do you really think he would be stupid enough to go back to his own house? He's on the run," he reminded him.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Lucas asked. "We've tried everything else. We even tried to take back the earrings he bought Brooke to see if that could be traced, but he paid with cash."

"We have Brooke's picture out there," Deb reminded him. "And now that we know Ian is the one who has her, we have his picture and his car on the news. I'm sure somebody will call if they see them."

"What good that will do? If he's smart, he will switch cars," Lucas pointed out. "And the way the police are acting, they probably won't even call us when they get a lead. Why else would they not notify the public when this guy got out of jail? Doesn't he have a probation officer or something?"

Haley quietly slipped out of the room. Nathan was right behind her as she went into the kitchen. He could see that something was bothering her and it wasn't just the fact that Brooke was missing. "Hales, what is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

Haley tried to hold her tears in as she spoke. "This is all my fault." Nathan embraced her in a tight hug as she continued to speak. "If I would have investigated him right away, we would have found out that Derek was Ian and we would have filed a restraining order against him."

"This isn't your fault," Nathan assured her. He tried to comfort her with his words. "You had no idea that Ian would show up again after the Halloween party."

"No, but I had a feeling in my gut that something was off with him," Haley replied. "And I didn't trust my instincts. And now Brooke is in the hands of that monster." Nathan could only hold her in his arms. "We're going to find her, right?" He nodded as he kept his girlfriend close to him.