Part 35

Clinging to the last vestiges of her dream Peyton lifted her hand to her face as she felt something tickle her. It had been one of the really good ones, the kind that had been less common over the last week or so. She couldn't remember exactly what had been happening or who was with her but she knew she had been laughing with someone, someone that made her happy, and she desperately wanted to hold on to that feeling for as long as she could. Groaning as she swiped at her nose, she heard a giggle at her ear, frowning, she pried an eyelid open and mustered a glare for the offender.

Brooke just calmly smiled back at the blonde as she watched the eye rotate in her direction.

"Morning."

Peyton immediately closed her eye again and turned over away from the other girl reaching to pull the cover over her head as she went. She was a little upset that she would no longer be able to get back to her dream but being with Brooke was a pretty good alternative to a dream she couldn't remember much about anyway.

But she was going to make her work for it.

Brooke watched completely unfazed at being ignored and decided that she would just have to try a little harder to wake Peyton up. Slowly she inched forward until she had plastered herself up against her friends back, letting her arm come around to rest on the other girl's stomach.

"Well," She began, surprised when her hand was met with warm skin rather than the cotton of the vest top the blonde was wearing, not that it stopped her tightening her hold. "Aren't we grumpy this morning? That time of the month?"

"No!"

"Hmm, you sure?" Brooke asked, her thumb brushing back and forth over Peyton's stomach. "I could give you a massage, if you wanted?" She whispered.

"Yes I'm sure." Peyton said straining to keep her voice at a normal tone, not wanting Brooke to know the reaction her body was starting to have to her touch. Her eyes had automatically closed the moment Brooke moved to hold her, her tiredness completely gone as every cell in her body seemed to come to life.

"Then get your scrawny ass up out of bed!" Brooke shouted, her hand moving to grab hold of the cover and toss it back, exposing both of them to the cooler room air.

"Ahh!" Peyton cried feeling goose bumps raise on her arms as her warm cocoon was suddenly ripped away from her. She narrowed her eyes at Brooke who was laughing as she bounced on her knees beside her. In a flash she had her arms around Brooke's waist and they were soon rolling around on the bed giggling as they each tried to get the upper hand. Peyton was being careful to be gentle given how hurt the other girl was which meant eventually Brooke was able to pin Peyton beneath her.

"I win!" She declared.

Peyton shook her head at the other girl and sighed, bemused at how childish her friend could be at times. Not that she had a problem with it. Brooke had always been the only person she had ever acted this way with so she was happy to see this side of her best friend returning.

Peyton stared up at Brooke for a heartbeat, her eyes twinkling. "Didn't you say you liked it better when I was on top?" She enquired cheekily.

Brooke gasped. "Oh that is it!" She said, her fingers darting out and over her friend's body.

"No… don't… come on! Stop, please… I'm sorry!" Peyton rushed out between giggles trying to bat hands away from her body but Brooke had the advantage of knowing exactly where her most ticklish spots were.

Brooke laughed but kept up her assault, unmoved by her friend's protests.

Peyton tucked her elbows into her body to try and prevent Brooke reaching under her arms but the other girl would just alternate to get a swipe under her knee and even going for the sole of her foot when she bent her legs up to her chest in defence.

"Brooke!" Peyton breathed out trying to turn her back to the brunette. "I'm going to pee myself!" She cried when Brooke found the sensitive area just below her ribcage.

That stopped Brooke cold, as much fun as she was having that would be a bit much, especially while she was still on top of her.

Peyton turned back over and held Brooke's wrists in her hands as she eased her body straight again, her laughter finally dying down.

"Now," She began as she looked at the grinning girl still sat astride her hips. "Would you mind explaining why we're awake at such a ridiculous time?" She asked, still finding it strange that Brooke had been awake before her. Brooke was the one she would have to drag kicking and screaming out of bed more often than not if they were to make it to school on time.

This was definitely a change but had happened on a few occasions before, often when Brooke had the idea of skipping school for a day at the beach, or shopping. But given what had happened Peyton suspected that Brooke could quite as easily have woken early from nightmares only the brunette seemed in too much of a good mood for that to be the case.

So that only left…

"Okay, spill it!" She demanded when Brooke failed to respond.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Sawyer." Brooke replied haughtily raising her chin higher for effect.

Peyton eyed her suspiciously for a few seconds but Brooke's expression didn't change. Fine, I'll just have to do this the hard way.

And with that decided, Peyton quickly flipped them over and set about getting her own revenge on the other girl, but kept her touch light and away from the more injured parts of Brooke's body.

"AH! Peyton, this isn't fair!" Brooke cried out then felt a sharp pain along her side as she laughed.

Peyton saw her friend wince slightly and quickly stopped, letting the other girl catch her breath, but her hands remained on Brooke's body.

"Sorry."

Peyton remembered just how much she enjoyed being with Brooke, summer had always been her favourite time of the year, because she spent it almost exclusively with Brooke.

Apart from the week or two she often had to spend with her parents in some other part of the country, pretending to be the perfect family, Brooke would usually stay over at her place the whole time. For a few months of the year there were no cheerleading competitions, no practises, no school work to do, nothing to worry about and no one to answer to. It was just them against the world.

Brooke opened her eyes slowly after taking a moment to let the pain subside and was greeted by Peyton gazing down at her.

"Hi." She said grinning up at the other girl as her hands came to rest on her friends thighs as she lingered above her.

"Hey," Peyton said lowering to touch foreheads. "I've missed this… us." She whispered.

Brooke smiled happily back at the blonde, waiting until she'd pulled away before tugging on a lock of hair. "Me too."

They fell silent after that just looking at each other with goofy grins on their faces until a throat cleared loudly beside them.

"Well, isn't this cute!" Haley smirked at them as she captured the image of her friends on her cell phone. She had been standing there for a few seconds but felt it necessary to announce her presence given the tension she could feel between the two girls.

Peyton looked to the side noticing Haley standing at the foot of the bed for the first time. Confused, she looked from the grinning pregnant girl with her phone directed at her to Brooke who was staring up at her in shock.

She blushed.

"And you thought Nathan had something to worry about; I wonder what someone's boyfriend would say if he saw this!" Haley said with a smirk.

Peyton's blush deepened as she took in how close she was with Brooke and who Haley was referring to.

Lucas!

Panicked, she flipped over away from Brooke and tried to calm her thundering heart as the situation she found herself in was brought home to her. Here she was messing about with Brooke, half undressed and in bed, after she had walked out on her boyfriend last night.

Peyton threw her arm over her face knowing she had to be blushing badly at this point and simply ignored Haley.

Brooke on the other hand was taken aback by just how quickly the blonde had retreated from her. She swallowed against how much that hurt and plastered a smile on her face as she eased herself up into a seated position.

"You again?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Haley watched her two friends and guessed she probably had interrupted something, Peyton still hadn't moved and Brooke was looking at her with something close to irritation. "Uhmm… I'll just… wait out there, ha."

Brooke sighed quietly as she watched Haley leave then turned to look at the blonde beside her. Peyton was still hiding behind her arm even though Haley was no longer in the room.

She stared at her friend a moment longer, suddenly feeling very alone, before she moved off the bed and over to the drawers holding some of her clothes.

"I'm going to jump in the shower," She said keeping her back to Peyton as she collected her things. "Why don't you head out there and get that phone off Haley? And while you're at it remind her she doesn't exactly live here anymore."

And with that she made her way to the bathroom, taking careful steps so she didn't over stress her thigh.

Unknown to Brooke, Peyton watched her every move from the crook of her elbow.

The bitterness in Brooke's voice worried Peyton, she just didn't know who Brooke was pissed at most; Haley for interrupting them or at her for the way she had just acted.

With a sigh and a shake of her head Peyton sat up and then started to get changed, having decided that she should just go do as Brooke had asked as well as see who was all in the other room.

And why exactly we have visitors before eight in the freaking morning!

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Peyton tried not to laugh as she slowly approached Haley and Nathan who were both seated at the breakfast counter, Nathan was looking on puzzled as his wife repeatedly banged her head against the worktop.

"Now," She started, taking a seat across from the couple. "As much as it pains me to do this, I have been ordered to retrieve both your cell phone and your house key."

Haley lifted head dejectedly to the smirking blonde and pouted.

"Come on hand them over." Peyton said holding out her hand.

Still upset at having embarrassed all three of them with what she had thought was simply a joke, Haley easily handed over her phone to her friend without much thought and then pushed her set of keys towards her.

Peyton grinned as she quickly pulled up the picture of herself and Brooke from only moments before, ignoring her friends when Haley groaned and once again placed her head down against the counter as Nathan stroked her back.

It was a cute picture and as she moved through the shots Peyton found that Haley had captured two more, they definitely looked very compromising given that she was rolling around half naked with someone that wasn't her boyfriend. But if you took Lucas out of the picture, there was nothing to be ashamed of and she quickly set about transferring the images to her own cell before deleting them from Haley's.

"Okay so will someone tell me why my wife has decided to remove a few hundred brain cells the hard way?" Nathan asked as Haley failed to move from her position.

"Well I could but then I'd have to kill ya Nate, and as it is I'm not sure we'll be able to save Haley here." Peyton explained in a serious voice and patted the pregnant girls hand in pity.

Haley snatched her hand away and lifted her head to scowl at the blonde. Peyton was having way too much fun over this whole thing. "You're mean!"

"And you're in trouble!" Peyton countered adding a flash of her tongue for good measure.

"Oh, real mature." Haley huffed, still pouting.

"I'm not the one married with a kid on the way before I graduate from high school; I don't have to be mature!" Peyton smirked.

Haley just narrowed her eyes at the blonde.

"Was that an insult?" Nathan turned his head and questioned Haley.

"I'm not sure." Haley replied crossing her arms over her chest.

Peyton just looked innocently back at her friends as they worked over her comment trying to decide whether or not to be offended.

"Peyton! Can you come here please?"

The three friends turned in the direction of Brooke's voice before Peyton grinned at having her escape route provided for her and backed away from the couple.

"Count yourself lucky Sawyer." Nathan called out as she disappeared.

Still grinning Peyton quickly ducked into the bathroom which was where Brooke had called her from.

"What can I d-" Peyton began but feel silent as she took in the view in front of her. Brooke was naked except for the towel she had wrapped around her waist, holding it up in front to cover her breasts.

Peyton suddenly found her mouth dry looking at her friend who nervously shifted before turning and presenting her back to the blonde.

Swallowing she took a step closer to Brooke. "What do you need?" She asked softly, ignoring the red lines that marred part of the other girls back.

Brooke sighed before looking over her shoulder to her friend. She'd tried coping herself but she simply couldn't reach this one properly without pulling the stitches in her side.

"Could you pull the dressing off?" She asked.

The dressing she was talking about ran from her right shoulder to just above her hip and protected two of the more serious wounds her back had received. The problem was that when she used her left hand she pulled at the stitches on the right side of her body and it was just too awkward a position to try and use her right hand.

"Sure, no problem." Peyton said moving closer as Brooke turned her head away. She watched Brooke's shoulders lift as she took a deep breath then lifted her hand to the top of the bandage, frowning when she noticed it was shaking.

Looking forward Peyton locked her gaze with the brown eyes watching her in the mirror above the sink.

"Ready?" She asked confidently not wanting Brooke to get upset and waited until Brooke nodded giving her the okay to begin.

Peyton steadied herself before her fingers started to pull the dressing away from the skin of her friends back. Slowly she pealed it down trying to be as careful as she could so as not to cause her friend any more pain than necessary, but she knew it had to hurt a little.

Silently she kept going, bit by bit, until the whole of the dressing had come off. Thankful that it was over Peyton glanced quickly over the thick red marks glad that they looked to be healing well before she raised her eyes to catch Brooke's in the mirror again.

"Hey!" Peyton said alarmed at the tears streaming down her friends face. Quickly she pulled the other girl to her, careful not to put too much pressure on the freshly exposed scars. Waiting until Brooke had calmed down some Peyton placed her hands on Brooke's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.

"Those will heal. All of these," Peyton continued looking over Brooke's body. "Will heal. You will heal." She said her conviction clear in her voice.

Brooke sniffed, tears still leaking from her eyes as she watched Peyton. This had been the first time she had really taken the time to look at her scars. Her body was littered with them, and while most of them were small and shallow, and would heal just as Peyton had said, some would not.

Some were too big, too deep, and too painful to ever truly disappear from existence as so many others would given time.

She had thought it wouldn't matter to her, that she could ignore all the marks over her body, the knife marks, the stab wounds, the black threads that had held her skin together preventing her from bleeding to death, all the vivid bruising over her body… none of it should really matter to her right?

Not when she had survived everything that bastard had done to her.

Not when she was safe, not when Peyton was safe.

Then why did they make her feel ugly… dirty… ashamed to have Peyton standing beside her, seeing her like this.

"You hear me Brooke?" Peyton asked her hands moving to hold Brooke's face gently in her grip.

Brooke nodded even as another sob escaped past her lips.

Sighing Peyton steadily wiped away tear after tear until they slowed and finally stopped. "Come here." She said pulling the brunette into another hug and kissing her head.

This time Brooke held Peyton as tightly as she could, paying little attention to the pain it caused her, and silently thanking the other girl for being her best friend, for being there for her when she needed her, for believing in her. Always.

And for giving her the courage to maybe, just maybe, start to believe in herself again.

"Thanks." Brooke whispered as they moved apart slightly.

Peyton smiled at Brooke, glad to see her friends composure return. "You have nothing to thank me for Brooke." She said before placing a lingering kiss to her forehead.

"Now get in that shower before someone else barges in without knocking."

Brooke let out a laugh as she dropped the towel covering her body and stepped into the shower giving Peyton a wink as she passed.

Shaking her head Peyton waited a moment until Brooke had turned the shower on and seemed to be doing better before heading back out to her other friends.

She still had a few answers to get.

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AN/ Now guys, we all know I suck at posting, but I hope you forgive me… cause I wuve you guys!!

Mission accomplished - thank you Ghostwriter6647

Anyways thanks for reading, and I'll catch you all next time. Which will hopefully be a lot sooner :D