PART 19

"So this is what it was all about, this is why you hooked me up to this thing?" Peyton asks the amusement in her voice unmistakeable as her eyes twinkled at her friend.

"Yip!" Brooke states proudly.

Peyton looked down at the object Brooke had just placed down onto the bed.

She laughed.

"Double chocolate chip ice cream?" Peyton asked.

"Yip." Brooke smiled at the blonde as she tapped her newly obtained treasure with the tip of her finger.

Peyton shook her head in disbelief as the brunette climbed up onto the bed, Brooke was special she had to admit that, definitely a one of a kind.

"What?" Brooke asked as she noticed Peyton's expression. "Well, I guess you won't be wanting any then, all the more for me." She said pulling the small half pint tub into her lap and away from her friend.

Peyton giggled.

"Brooke, firstly where did you get that tub of ice cream? And secondly, how exactly do you plan on eating it?" Peyton asked.

Brooke, about to explain how she had managed to get her hands on her prize realised that Peyton was right, she had no way of eating the frozen treat now that she had it.

Her face fell into a pout.

"Guess you'll need these then won't you Brooke?" Shannon said strolling into the room with two bowls and spoons in her hands.

The two girls looked at the nurse innocently even as Peyton gave her a small wave showing the monitor lead on her finger.

Shannon smirked at the pair. "You know you have the student nurse that's on duty at the desk thinking she's seen a ghost. How else can you explain a patient walking by when all the monitors still show readings for them?" She continued with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, you did promise me." Brooke justified herself. "You can't just do that and fail to deliver, and here I thought nurses were trustworthy!" She continued.

"And I would have delivered, after visiting." Shannon replied pointedly. "Tell you what, you put that back on and I'll give you these." She continued indicating the lead on Peyton and the bowls and spoons she still held.

Brooke scowled as she considered that, she knew she would have to eventually put the thing back on. That sooner or later visiting would be over and Peyton would have to leave.

The thought that she would be alone in this room with only her thoughts for company again saddened her.

She sighed.

She had enjoyed her freedom while it lasted.

"Fine." She agreed, even as her shoulders slumped.

"Okay then." Shannon agreed and quickly handed the bowls over to Peyton and then replaced the lead onto Brooke's finger before she checked the monitors, gave them both a smile, and left the room.

Trapped again. Brooke thought to herself grimacing as she looked at her encased finger.

"Hey." Peyton said giving her a nudge with her shoulder. The blonde had watched with concern as Brooke's previous light mood evaporated right in front of her. It was the last thing she wanted, not after Brooke had seemed so genuinely happy.

Brooke looked at her.

"How about you hold these and I'll dish this out, seems a shame to waste it after you went to so much trouble." Peyton said giving her a hopeful smile, holding out a bowl.

"Fine, but your right, I did go to all that trouble so make sure mine's full, I deserve it!" She says allowing herself to be distracted, she would have plenty of time to throw herself a pity party after Peyton had left.

"Yeah? Why exactly did you rate this anyway?" Peyton asked as she dished the ice cream out.

Brooke waited until after she had enjoyed a mouthful before answering her friend.

"Augh, I had my first physio session for my thigh." She explained around another spoonful.

"Yeah?" Peyton replied, she hadn't known Brooke needed anything like that for her injuries. "How did it go? And what about your hand?" She asked tentatively not wanting to overstep and upset the brunette.

Brooke held up her still bandaged hand for the blonde to see and flexed it, not quite able to close it all the way. "It's okay, no major damage to either luckily, so with the exercises they make me do my hand should be okay. It'll just take time." She said with a shrug as she continued to eat.

"With my thigh, it's a little different." She said. "The knife tore up the muscles a bit so…" Another shrug. "They want me to walk about and do some strength work, that's what I was doing today. Boy was that a bitch!"

"But, I mean you were walking just now." Peyton said worried for her friend.

Brooke rolled her eyes at her.

"Calm down Blondie, yes I'll probably have some trouble walking for a few weeks, maybe months but if I put the work in, do what they say, it'll be as good as new." Brooke said giving her frowning best friend a smile.

Peyton didn't look entirely convinced, but accepted what she was told. And I'll make damn sure she keeps up with all those exercises when she gets out of here.

"So the ice cream?" She prodded.

"Right, so the deal was I do what I was told and she'd give me a treat. I said I wanted ice cream and Shannon agreed." Brooke finished.

Peyton nodded, she knew sometimes Brooke needed an incentive to do something that didn't really appeal to her, and it was how the brunette got her to go shopping with her so often when they had been younger.

Not that Peyton ever really minded spending time with Brooke, even if she did always pretend otherwise, at least when it came to shopping.

"So do you know when they're going to let you out of here yet?" Peyton asked, knowing that if she was receiving therapy, it shouldn't be too much longer.

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"Are we just going to walk in or is Peyton going to come out looking for us?" Nathan asked Haley as he and Lucas finally arrived. He was keen to be able to see Brooke at last.

"Yeah, Peyton said just press the buzzer and we'd be let in." Haley informed them. She had been waiting for almost half an hour for them to turn up from taking down the stupid posters that were all over town.

"How far did you guys get anyway, are most of them down?" She asked looking between the two brothers. Lucas had still to say anything since he'd got there, and she could tell he was still upset with himself.

"No." Nathan said and puffed out a lungful of air in frustration. "I don't think we even got close, Mouth had gotten some guys to help him and Skill, I don't know what they used to put the damn things up but they were stuck on pretty good." He explained. With nothing but their hands as tools ripping down the posters had proved to be a difficult and painful process, his fingers and knuckles were scraped up a little.

They'd done as much as they could if they still wanted to visit Brooke tonight. Nathan knew after speaking to Mouth and Skills that they hadn't even got half of them down yet, and it was going to take most of tomorrow to get them all down and make sure they hadn't missed any.

That was fine, he'd rather spend the day doing that than spending it at school anyway, but tomorrow he was definitely taking some kind of scraping tool with him, his hands were killing him.

"Well okay, but Peyton asked me to remind you both that you haven't to say a word about them to Brooke when we go in okay?" She informed them, even though she knew it was very unlikely that either of them would do such a thing, Peyton just didn't want to take any chances.

Nathan nodded. "Done, not a word." He agreed as he started to walk over to the door where a policeman was sitting.

"Oh, and yeah we haven't to mention that either guys." Haley said tilting her head to indicate the uniformed officer as she pressed the buzzer.

Lucas stood behind the pair wishing he was anywhere else at that very moment. He knew he'd screwed up with Peyton earlier and wasn't sure he'd get anything other than a cold shoulder from the blonde.

Brooke was just as daunting a prospect, he wasn't sure where they stood with each other after everything that had gone on between him and Peyton, and how much that had hurt the cheerleader. They'd managed civil conversations once or twice but they were far from friends.

"Are you coming?" Nathan asked his brother as they were let in.

Guess so. He thought with a sigh and followed them inside.

Nathan walked just behind the nurse that was taking them to see Brooke wishing she would walk faster. He felt really nervous and excited at the idea of seeing Brooke in a matter of seconds and as the nurse guided them into a room he couldn't help the grin that took over his face at the first sight of his long time friend.

"Hot shot!" Brooke shouted as she watched Haley, Nathan and Lucas enter her room.

Nathan walked over to Brooke and smiled though his eyes began to water.

"Long time no see." Brooke said as she opened her arms to him.

Nathan hesitantly drew her into his arms and hugged her back as tightly as she held him.

Peyton watched from her seat beside Brooke as the two friends embraced. She knew how much Nathan meant to the brunette and it made her proud to be able to witness such a moment between the pair.

Even though she had dated the basketball star he had always seemed like part of their dysfunctional family. When she'd met Brooke at the tender age of seven Nathan had come along as part of the package.

They had spent lots of time together as kids before the expectations of his father had stolen him away from them.

"You okay?" Brooke asked her softly.

Peyton blinked the tears out of her eyes and grinned at Brooke as her friend started to wipe them away from her cheeks.

"Yeah." She replied as she looked from Brooke to Nathan who was wiping his own tears away and back again. Brooke held Nathan's hand in her own even as she continued to wipe the tear marks from her face.

"You look like shit Brooke." Nathan said grinning at the pair.

Peyton squawked and reached out to slap at him but missed as he hopped back from her.

"Thanks!" Brooke said with a roll of her eyes. "So glad you visited, bye now." She continued with a pout as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Aww don't be like that Brooke, you know I love you no matter how bad you look." Nathan managed to get out before a pillow was thrown in his direction.

Which he easily caught and handed back to the brunette before the smile faded from his face and his expression turned sombre.

"Seriously Brooke it's great to finally get to see you." He said as he ran a finger gently over her bruised cheek. "I don't know what I would have done if…" He frowned. "I'm so glad you're going to be okay." He continued, his eyes watering again.

Brooke reached up to clasp his hand that had now moved to cup her face. "Thank you, Nate. And I am going to be fine okay, so don't worry about that anymore."

Nathan nodded and griped the hand that held his too emotional to be able to reply verbally.

Brooke laughed a little as she looked around at the people in her room, all of whom now seemed to be in tears. "Come on people, your supposed to be here to cheer me up not the other way around."

That got her a few half hearted chuckles.

Her gaze finally landed on Lucas Scott after a brief debate with herself she sent a smile in his direction. "Well don't I get a hug Broody?" She asked hoping her enthusiasm didn't sound as forced as it felt.

And as Nathan moved back to allow Lucas to take his place Brooke couldn't help but notice how Peyton had tensed up the closer the older Scott brother got.

After a hug that last a lot less than the previous one she had just shared with his brother, Brooke looked at Peyton but the blonde wouldn't meet her gaze.

Brooke frowned but decided to let it go for now.

But something was definitely going on, and she'd find out sooner or later.

"So how's everyone been?"

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"Look Peyton I promise they'll all be down by this time tomorrow, okay?" Nathan said as he helped the blonde set up the couch.

It was getting late and although they'd all enjoyed spending time with Brooke he knew there were still problems between them. He hated that he'd helped do something that would hurt Brooke and had already deeply upset Peyton, he could tell the blonde had shut Lucas out over it and that wasn't a fate he wanted for himself.

He was willing to do anything in order to make things right again.

"Look Nate, it was a really dumb thing to do." Peyton said watching as Nathan nodded in agreement. "But you've said you'll take them all down before Brooke ever sees them, all I can do is trust you." She continued glancing at her watch and frowning at the time.

"Yeah, I'm going to get the rest down tomorrow, it's not like we're doing anything in classes right now anyway, so it's not like I'm gonna miss something important." He said.

"Right, well I'm going to get change then." Peyton said grabbing up her bag about to head towards the bathroom but she caught sight of the disappointment on her friends face.

She sighed, she didn't have the time for this.

"Nathan." She began walking until she stood directly in front of the taller boy.

Haley had been tired from being on her feet for so long and had left them to fix up the couch on their own as she headed to her own bed, so it was just the two of them left up. Lucas had gone to his own home straight from the hospital not that she'd spoken to him of course, and he hadn't attempted to speak to her much to her relief. She was still angry with him.

But not with Nathan for some reason, she'd thought about why that was and had come up with a simple answer. She trusted Nathan more than Lucas right now, she wasn't sure how fair that was to Lucas but it was the truth.

"I get that you were only trying to help, I get it okay, I know you'd never do anything that would really hurt Brooke." She continued.

Nathan swallowed as he stared at her. "So are we okay again?" He asked her needing that confirmed to him.

"Come here." Peyton said and was quickly enveloped by his strong arms. "Yes, we're good Nate, always okay?" She said as he lifted her off of the ground a little.

He grinned at her his happiness at knowing their friendship was still firmly intact showing on his face.

She giggled, he could be so silly sometimes.

"Look I'm going to get changed, why don't you head in to see Hales she's probably wondering what's taking so long." She said before making her way to the bathroom.

"Night, Peyton."

"Night, Nathan." Peyton said before walking into the bathroom and closing the door. After waiting a good ten minutes she slowly emerged.

She was still wearing the clothes she'd had on and as she checked the time again she cursed silently, knowing she was running late. With a last look back at the closed bedroom door she quietly made her way out of the apartment.

She had somewhere else to be.

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AN/ So you guys liked the alternate chap 17, cool, always nice to know I can make other Lucas haters like myself smile.

Anyways enough of that, hope everyones enjoying the story so far, review if you wanna :P

I drew a few lurkers outta the wood work which is an achievement :) always nice to hear what the readers think.

So people, for those not in the know (probably anyone not living in N.I. or Scotland) tomorrow is the big game - RANGERS v celtic (boo, hiss) So if my team wins, which they should!! I'll post soonish, if we lose you might not see a post for a while :( :sniff:

Think I'm kidding?

Catch you all next time.