Boooooo!

Part 11

Peyton moved her head slightly feeling something in her hair. It took her a second to remember exactly where she was, at the hospital, in Brooke's room. Becoming more conscious of her surroundings she came to the conclusion that she must have leaned her head on the bed in front of her and dosed off.

Once again she could feel something in her hair and with a start she realised that it had to be Brooke's hand. She's awake!

Tentatively Peyton opened her eyes as her heart raced afraid she was only dreaming and that once she looked up her eyes would only see Brooke still asleep.

"Hey, decided to open your eyes? I knew you were awake you faker." Comes a raspy voice in a quiet tone accompanied with a gentle tug to her hair.

Peyton smiled and raised her head, Brooke was awake.

"Hey." Peyton replied grinning widely at the brunette. Her friend wasn't exactly a picture of health at the moment, what with part of her face badly bruised. But to Peyton she looked more beautiful than she had ever seen her before.

Peyton reached up to the hand in her hair and squeezed it softly before standing and giving Brooke a kiss to the forehead.

"Welcome back Brooke." The blonde said her voice thick with emotion.

"Thanks, although I'd rather be home tucked up in bed than in here." Brooke said looking around the room. "Depressing or what?"

"Oh, I don't know. This place has got some appeal." Peyton says staring at her friend who turns to her with a raised eyebrow.

"You think so?" Brooke responds dubious of Peyton's claim.

Peyton smirks.

"It's got you."

Peyton watches as Brooke blushes slightly and looks away making her grin widen.

"How are you feeling?" Peyton asks as the silence began to lengthen.

"Alive." Brooke replies looking at the blonde. "Not something I was expecting."

Peyton was shocked by that answer and took a few minutes to let that register properly. She didn't expect to live then, so she knows what happened to her. All of it?

"Do you… do you remember what happened?" The blonde asks unsure if she was doing the right thing.

Brooke laughs devoid of humour.

"Oh yes, where's the fun if the person's unconscious the whole time, right?" Brooke said her eyes losing all emotion. "Couldn't have that now, could we?"

"So you…"

"Peyton I was awake when he left, barely, but I was aware of what was happening okay. I know every little thing he did, trust me it's not something I'll forget in a hurry." Brooke says bitterly, not able to look her friend in the eye anymore. Instead the brunette fixed her gaze on the wall across from her.

"I'm sorry Brooke." Peyton said blinking tears from her eyes. She hated this, she hated that there was nothing she could do to fix any of it, in fact she was afraid she'd only made things worse for her best friend.

"They'll catch him Brooke, and he'll pay for everything I promise."

Brooke nodded and sighed, she hadn't wanted to say as much as she had and regretted the way she'd spoken to Peyton. It wasn't the blonde's fault, in fact Brooke knew Peyton would be devastated once she learned the full extent of what had happened that night.

Brooke wasn't sure if she would be able to tell anyone let alone Peyton everything that had happened. She wasn't ready to answer the questions right now, she didn't want to think about any of it, only that she was alive and so was Peyton.

That was all that mattered to her right now.

Peyton was here, and as far as Brooke had been able to tell by watching her while she slept she was perfectly okay, although she did look like she could do with more than a few hours sleep. But other than that there were no signs of the blonde being hurt, which was more of a relief to Brooke than her own condition.

Maybe the pain was getting to her. Leaning back she tried to get comfortable but it wasn't an easy task. She had tubes stuck into her arms and a hand that radiated pain underneath the layers of bandages that adorned it.

Peyton watched her carefully wondering if she should leave and let Brooke get some rest.

"Do you want me to get you a nurse Brooke?" Peyton asks softly.

Brooke grunts and adjusts her position somewhat as her side began to make its presence known. It was beginning to hurt when she breathed, it had been uncomfortable to speak at the start, which she knew was caused by the tube that had been in her throat. But this was a sharp pain down the length of her side.

"Yeah, maybe you should." Brooke says in defeat. As much as she disliked hospitals she had a feeling she would be in here longer than she wanted.

"Well now, looks like we're finally awake in here."

Both Peyton and Brooke look in the direction of the voice to see a nurse walking over to them.

"Yeah she is but she's not feeling too good." Peyton says happy that someone could help her friend now.

"Okay let's have a look." Says the nurse as she walks closer to Brooke. Quickly she attaches a blood pressure cuff around her upper arm and looks at the readings on the monitors.

"So your friend's decided to join the rest of us huh Brooke?" The nurse continues with a wink at the brunette.

Brooke giggles as she watches a blush work its way up her friends face.

"Well everything appears to be okay, so what seems to be the problem?" The nurse asks.

"She's in pain." Peyton explains before Brooke can respond. She had looked at the clock on the wall after what the nurse had said and was embarrassed to find out visiting had been over for quite a while. Guess I was tired.

The nurse adjusts some settings on one of the machines beside the bed. "Well let's see if that works, if not just press the buzzer and I'll be back all right?"

"Thanks Maggie." Brooke says.

"Visiting starts again in a few hours Sleeping Beauty." The older woman says to Peyton with a smile before leaving the room.

"So…" Peyton starts ignoring the smirk on her friends face. "I should probably go and let you get some rest." She continues somewhat reluctantly, not really wanting to leave but Brooke needed to rest properly.

Brooke sighs, she didn't want Peyton to go anywhere, especially alone.

Not with him still out there.

Only there was nothing she could do about it while she was stuck in a hospital bed, but maybe someone else could.

"Is Lucas waiting outside for you?"

"What?" Peyton replies not expecting Brooke to ask that.

"Lucas, you know your boyfriend?" Brooke asks frowning. It wasn't that hard of a question.

"Oh, yeah. And Nathan and Haley. The gang's all there." Peyton says trying to smile.

"Good, then it's his turn to watch you." Brooke says slowly closing her eyes as the increase to her medication started to make her sleepy.

Noticing her friend dosing off Peyton stands up and watches her for a few seconds, she was a little confused about Brooke's last comment but figured it was in reference to the Sleeping Beauty comment from the nurse.

"I'll be back soon, okay Brooke?" She says quietly but Brooke had already fallen asleep. Leaning over she lays a kiss to her head before leaving the room.

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"Are you sure about this?" Nathan asks as Peyton starts to get out of the car.

Peyton had been quiet after coming back to the waiting room at the hospital, she had let them know Brooke was sleeping again but that had been all the information she had provided.

No one had really known what to say so they had said nothing, just walked together back to the car where Peyton had asked to be dropped off at the police station.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Lucas asks from his seat in the back beside Haley. Peyton had sat up front with Nathan staring out the window during the ride.

"Yes I'm sure, and no it's okay. I don't think they'd let you in with me anyway. I'll see you guys later okay?" Peyton explained, although she had no idea if Lucas could be allowed in with her or not.

She wanted to be alone, all the hovering and looks were beginning to bother her.

There was nothing wrong with her, and the concern they were showing her was beginning to make her resentful. Brooke was the one that had been attacked, she was the one in the hospital not her.

With a sigh she tried to calm down knowing her friends were just worried about her and how she was coping with what had happened to Brooke. They really didn't deserve her anger, that should be directed at the person responsible for all of this not her friends.

"How about I call you when I'm done here okay? And you can come get me." She said as a compromise, she really did need some time alone.

"Okay, but wait inside until one of them picks you up, there's still news vans driving around Peyton." Haley says in warning not wanting the blonde to have more to deal with than she already did.

"Fine by me." Peyton agrees and watches her friends drive off before walking into the brick building behind her.

Inside was a buzz of activity, people moving around in the background, shouts calling out, phones ringing unanswered. It looked like absolute chaos to Peyton.

It took her a while before spotting what she gathered was the front desk clerk and walked over to him.

"Hi." She said.

The man behind the desk looked up at her from scribbling on sheets of papers in front of him before continuing his work.

"Yeah?" He questions gruffly.

"Umm, I need to speak to someone." Peyton says thinking that officers of the law should be a bit more polite to the public they were supposed to serve and protect.

"Don't we all?" He replied in the same tone not even looking at her this time.

"I need to talk to a Detective Jones."

With an aggravated sigh the uniformed man throws down the pen in his hand and looks at Peyton.

"About?"

"I was told he wanted to talk to me." Peyton replies, although not strictly true it was close enough.

The man looks around at the people behind him before spotting a roughly dress man holding a stack of files.

"Hey Jones." He shouts out making the man stop and turn to him. "Blondie wants to talk to you."

"I'm busy come back later." The man responds before continuing in the direction he'd been going and disappearing behind a door.

Peyton was shocked at being dismissed so easily, she was here because she thought the Detective wanted to speak to her. She wasn't sure what to think only that she was trying to do the right thing and save the guy the time it would take to find and speak to her.

"Name and what you'd like to talk to Jones about?" The clerk asks after finding a clean sheet of paper.

"Peyton Sawyer and it's about Brooke Davis."

Peyton watched him pause as he wrote down what she said.

"Brooke Davis?" He asked his whole demeanour changing as he looked at her in question.

"Yeah." She replied slowly with a frown, if he could repeat Brooke's name then he'd obviously heard her perfectly fine the first time she'd said it.

"Wait here." And with that he got up and left in the direction the Detective had gone not long before.

He returned accompanied by who she gathered to be Detective Jones and another man dressed in a much more expensive dark suit.

"Hello, sorry about that." He apologised when he got closer. "If you would like to come with me Miss Sawyer we can talk more privately." He continued directing her back the way he'd came.

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"So Miss Sawyer, I don't think you've been interviewed properly about Miss Davis' attack. Is that right?" Jones began.

He had led her into a room that had a desk with chairs on either side. He'd placed a note pad and folder down after he sat but the other man had moved off to lean against the wall. Jones hadn't introduced him but Peyton guessed he might have been his boss.

"I guess. I mean I talked to some cops at the hospital and called the next day, but no, I haven't come down here to say anything." Peyton said with a shrug.

"Right then, well lets start at the beginning so if you'd just like to tell me what happened that night in your own words."

"I've already said all that." Peyton responded not wanting to go over everything again.

"But not to me." The Detective says after a glance at the other man in the room.

Peyton folded her arms over her chest and scowled. "I got home. I went to my room. I found her bleeding on the floor. I called for help."

Jones sighs at Peyton's response.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" She asks.

"We're just concerned about catching the man responsible for hurting your friend Ms Sawyer." Replied the man in the suit.

"And just who are you?"

"I'm the one in charge of finding him."

"Well what do you need me for?" Peyton questions looking at both men.

"There are just a few things that are bothering us at the minute, we were hoping you could clear them up for us." He says walking over and sitting down beside Jones.

"Like what?" Peyton asks wanting to do anything she could to help catch the guy that had hurt her friend so much.

"There was no sign of forced entry, could you explain that to us?" Jones asks.

"Uh, I don't know."

"Did Miss Davis have a key?" The other man asks.

"No, she used to but…" Peyton trailed off.

"But?"

"I changed all the locks not long ago… she didn't have the new key." Peyton explains not wanting to think about why she had the locks changed, or why Brooke had never been given a new key.

"And why did you do that?" Jones continues.

"I had some trouble with someone… which you should already know about if you'd bothered to look at anything relating to me or my house." She says angry at the questions.

"Ah, yes I've got that here." Jones says flipping back a few pages in his note book. "Apparently you were attacked by your brother-"

"He's not my brother." Peyton jumps in, the guy may have pretended to be her family but he was anything but. He was a sick psycho and she hoped he would rot in jail where he belonged.

"Your stalker attacked you but ran off before the police got there. Is that correct?"

"Yes. A Detective Wilcox arrested him and was handling the case, I think." Peyton confirms although not really sure of his name.

"Wilcox? Never heard of him."

Peyton shrugs, that might have been his name but she couldn't say for certain.

"Right well there was also the matter of why Miss Davis was at your house that night?" Jones continues after looking at the guy beside him. "You told the officers that you didn't know why she was there is that correct?"

"Yeah."

"There's nothing you'd like to add to that?" Jones asked.

"No."

"So you have no idea why she would be at your house that night?" The other man asked as he leaned over towards her. "When exactly was the last time you saw Miss Davis?"

"Uh, well… the last time?"

"Yes, when was the last time you spoke to or saw, Miss Davis?" He repeated clearly.

"Let me help you with that." Jones offers flipping forward a page or two before finding what he was looking for. "Miss Sawyer told the officers she had last seen her earlier that day but didn't know why she was at her house later that night."

"Right." Peyton said.

"Well the trouble with that is that Miss Davis was seen entering your house by a neighbour, who also confirmed that it was you that opened the door." The guy in the suit informed her.

"Oh."

"Now, would you like to explain that to us, seeing as you left that part out before?" Jones asked with a condescending smile.

"Well she came by to talk, we talked and she left." Peyton explained.

"Talk about what exactly?" Jones enquired.

"Just stuff." Peyton responded as she started nervously tapping her toes on the ground. "Anyway my boyfriend turned up soon after she got there so she left out the back, I went to Prom. I found her in my room when I got back a few hours later."

"So you didn'tactually see Miss Davis leave your house?" The man in the suit asked.

"Well… no… but she headed for the back door, you can't see it from the front door where I was… I just assumed she left." Peyton replies frowning as the two men in front of her share another look.

"What exactly aren't you telling me?" She asks, worried about what was going on.

After another long look between the two men Peyton knew there was something else going on other than just wanting her to go over her statement.

"Well it would appear that a young man was seen hanging around your area during the day." The suited man said.

"What do you mean? Who?" Peyton asked, she couldn't remember seeing anyone around even though she had been in and out of the house several times that day.

"He was described as a tall young man with blonde hair, about your height." Jones says after looking at his notes. "Know anyone who that could be?"

"Lucas? But he was with me at the Prom, it couldn't be him." Peyton says. Although it described her boyfriend she knew more than a few blonde haired guys in town that were about her height that it could be. But why anyone other than Lucas would be near her house that day she didn't know, no one looking like that lived in her area.

"Fortunately thanks to your neighbour we've been able to positively identify him as this individual." The man in the suit said as he pulled out a photo from his inside pocket and slide it across the table to Peyton.

Nervously Peyton reached for the picture as a cold fear griped her, this could be a picture of him, the guy that almost killed Brooke. Licking her lips and blinking she picks it up with shaking fingers and stares at the image in front of her.

"Do you recognise him?" Jones asks as Peyton clenches the picture in her hand.

Peyton could feel the tears sting her eyes, she did recognise him.

But that wasn't what hurt the most, because knowing who it was meant knowing why he was there, and that meant that it was all her fault.

"His name's Derek." She chokes out even as she could feel tears roll down her face, but she couldn't look away from the image of the guy she'd thought was her brother at one time.

The same guy that had stalked her, that had almost raped her.

That had raped Brooke.

He was after me.

Brooke's in the hospital because of me.

She almost died because of me.

It's all my fault.

I'm so sorry Brooke.

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AN/ Okay so does saying SORRY cut it for not updating when I said I would?

Thank you to everyone reading and those reviewing - thank you, thank you, thank you!