Part 38
"We'll have patrols drive by every forty minutes or so, but you have our number if you need it." The young officer said as he and his partner stood from the couch and made to leave.
"I'll show you out, and thanks again for getting here so quickly." Deb said as she joined them.
"Ma'am."
Nathan sat nervously next to his wife, his hand still holding tightly to hers, and looked over at his brother. He had no idea what he would have done if Lucas hadn't called and let them know where Brooke had run off to.
"Thanks for getting to the mall so fast." He said.
Lucas shrugged, it hadn't been him in the driving seat an hour ago. Peyton hadn't bothered about road signs or traffic lights as she listened to Brooke's disjointed explanation of what had happened and where she was.
"How is she?" Nathan asks as Peyton walks into the den biting at a finger nail.
Peyton glared at him. "How do you think she is?"
Nathan swallowed as the angry blonde walked straight towards him.
"I ask you to do one thing, one thing! Keep her safe. And you couldn't even handle that could you?" She shouted at him.
"Peyton…"
Peyton turned to Haley. "What? Is it supposed to be okay because nothing really happened to her?" She asked her friend. "You go out there," She demanded, pointing towards the backdoor in the kitchen. "And look at her and tell me she's all right!"
Haley looked at her friend not knowing what to say.
From the moment she'd seen Nathan frantically looking around her stomach had dropped. She'd known something was terribly wrong because Brooke hadn't been anywhere in sight.
Luckily it hadn't been more serious this time, because her first thoughts had went to Ian Banks.
And once Lucas had been able to relay from Peyton that Brooke had ducked into the toilets in the far side of the food court, she had quickly found her crying in a stall. From there it was just a case of getting her calmed down enough to get back to the jeep and everything would have been okay.
If, that was, had the press and a bunch of TV crews not been waiting at the mall exit for them.
Haley and Nathan had only barely been managing to help Brooke back to the car, they hadn't been ready for that. Stunned by the onslaught of questions aimed at Brooke, as well as the camera lenses and flashes going off, it had taken the arrival of Peyton and Lucas before they were able to some how bundle Brooke into the back of the jeep, get in, and drive off.
A very short conversation resulted in them heading to his mothers house where they thought Brooke would be safest given the trail of cars that followed them from the mall car park.
"I'm so sorry Peyton." Nathan choked out on the verge of tears.
Peyton looked at him as his eyes begged her for forgiveness. She felt herself start to tear up and quickly covered her face with both of her hands and took several big deep breaths.
She was still shaking, even after checking to see Brooke sitting on the back porch again, and again.
She had been so scared when she had picked up her cell phone to see Brooke's name flashing at her, she hadn't expected Brooke to be talking to her after what had happened that morning, so she'd known her call had to have been important.
She wanted to be mad at Nathan, be angry at him, because if he wasn't to blame that only left her.
She should have been there with them.
She should have been watching out for Brooke, but she'd hurt her and Brooke hadn't wanted her to be there.
My fault, all of it!
"Peyton…"
"Don't!" She said harshly, jerking away from Lucas as her tried to comfort her. She didn't want his sympathies or his touch.
She wiped at her face as she moved to the farthest seat away from her friends and sat down, not knowing what else to do.
Haley watched as Peyton and Lucas both took seats several feet apart. Her heart hurt for all of her friends, just as it hurt for her husband. No matter what anyone thought they knew, she had seen how hard it was for Nathan to accept the end of his career before it had ever started.
But he had caused it and he would live with that for the rest of his life.
She had forgiven him for the actions of Dante the night she was knocked down. She knew that they were now stronger as a family because they had managed to move on from that, because when it came right down to it, all that really mattered was her family being safe and secure. Not her music career, not his shot at the NBA, but having each other and the child they were going to bring into this world together.
Nothing was more important than that.
She sighed and got up with a little help from Nathan. She walked over to Peyton and just about managed to kneel down in front of her, earning the blonde's attention.
"We all had a pretty big scare today." She began, moving a blonde curl out of her friends eyes. "And I know we're all upset, Brooke especially."
Peyton nodded at that.
"But we agreed that we shouldn't tell her about Nathan being investigated. She didn't need to worry about that on top of everything else." Haley continued.
"I know." Peyton agreed sullenly.
"Let me talk to her," Haley offered. "That way I can answer any questions she might have."
Peyton ran her arm over her eyes. She wanted to think that Haley would be able to talk to Brooke and fix everything, but she understood Brooke better than that.
"We lied to her Haley," She replied miserably. "Not just about Nathan's point shaving, but about your accident that night."
Peyton herself hadn't known the whole truth until Lucas had told her he was willing to take the blame in order to let Nathan still have a chance at going to Duke. But she hadn't gotten too involved even though she had been shocked by what she'd learnt. Brooke had needed her, and as far as she could tell Nathan and Haley had pulled through the mess relatively unscathed.
So what if Nathan lost his scholarship, he still had a wife willing to stand by him and a child on the way.
"If there's one thing Brooke can't handle, it's being lied to." Peyton explained, unable to stop her eyes drifting over to Lucas' face, a constant reminder to her that she'd lost Brooke's trust for a long time because her own lies.
"Then why don't you all let me talk to her?"
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Brooke continued to stare out at the misty rain as it fell down across the grass of the back yard.
"I just don't understand. How could he risk…" Everything. She trailed off as she blinked rapidly to prevent more tears falling. She'd cried enough already, but there were so many emotions swirling around inside of her she wasn't even sure what she was feeling.
She could only guess that at some point Nathan had needed money, why else would he risk a dream he'd had for as long as she could remember. The problem was that she couldn't seem to recall any time Nathan or Haley had mentioned having money trouble to her.
She was incredibly hurt that when two of her best friends had been in trouble they hadn't come to her for help. Had they even considered asking her in the first place? It wasn't like she was short of money. Money was the one thing she had more than enough of and, if for some reason she couldn't get hold of what they needed on her own, she had relatives who wouldn't have hesitated to help out.
But she was also angry with Nathan over what he had done. How easy had it been for him to take Dante up on his offer, it was the quick fix and so much like something Dan would have done that it only upset her more. Was Nathan so naive that he would continue to make bad choice after bad choice, not caring that it was taking him closer to becoming like the father he despised so much?
She sighed.
Maybe, she had to admit, that what worried her most was that perhaps the value she held her friendship with Nathan and Haley just wasn't returned in the same way.
Nathan had a wife now, not to mention a child on the way, so of course they came top of his list. Whereas Haley now had the family she had always wanted, and an adopted family that she would always love in Lucas Scott and his mother.
She was jealous of the relationship they had with each other, and when she first found out they had married she'd wanted to brush it off as a joke, no one was supposed to get married while they were still kids.
High school is supposed to be the time in your life where you start to grow up, start to become the person you are underneath all the adolescent crap involved in being a teenager.
But Nathan and Haley were already further down that road than any of their peers, and made no apologies for that, in fact, they loved it. They had such a firm grasp on who they were and what they wanted that they didn't care what other people thought.
They had even taken her teasing about it being a shotgun wedding in their stride.
And as they had already shown when Haley left to go on tour, they would succeed or fail on their own, and so far they had more successes than failures.
Brooke remembered talking to the careers councillor and mentioning that when it was her time to start college it would be starting over again as a no one. And that was what she feared. Not the classes, or trying to fit in to the new surroundings, in a new city far away from Tree Hill. It was the fear of knowing that with the start of college life, came the end of her old life. Not just high school life or life in Tree Hill but the ending of what was her only home.
But home had never been a place to her. It wasn't a stone brick house that would lay empty for most of her life with only an occasional passing visit from the two adults known by some as her parents.
But the people she had come to love.
They were her home.
They were her shelter, her protection, the only source of comfort she'd ever really had in life. Whether they understood that or not, that was who Nathan, Haley, Peyton and her dad were, and the last thing she wanted was to give that up.
Graduation was getting closer and closer each day, bringing with it the start of a future that as far as she was concerned held nothing but emptiness.
She was angry that Nathan had held such an amazing future in his hands only to have put it at risk it over something as stupid as money.
Was his pride worth that?
She snorted. From what she had gathered earlier his pride had so far cost him his basketball career.
Point shaving? What the hell were you thinking Nathan?
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"You think your mom will do any good?" Haley asks Nathan quietly. Lucas had wandered off after Peyton who'd gone to wash her face in the up stairs bathroom, leaving just the two of them sitting in the den.
"I honestly don't know," He replied. "I thought she'd be pissed at me when she found out… but this?" He shook his head.
He sighed. "Guess she can't make it any worse."
"Come on, let's go find Lucas and Peyton," She suggested as she struggled to her feet again. "Maybe they can take our minds off Brooke for a while."
He grunted but followed her anyway. He doubted any of them would be thinking about anything other than how Brooke was doing right now, but he accepted the distraction for the time being.
Because the only way he'd be able to make things right again was to talk to Brooke himself, and that was something he wasn't looking forward to.
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Brooke had listened quietly as Nathan's mom sat down and started telling her everything she knew that had led to her son doing what he had. She listened as Deb blamed herself because she had been in too much of a mess for Nathan to come to her and ask for the help he needed.
Listened as she was told that Nathan had then turned to his father, only to be refused by a man that was supposed to always be there for him.
Brooke cried silently, knowing how difficult it must have been for Nate to have gone to his father for help, and how humiliated he must have felt when he was turned away.
She cried harder when she realised that Nathan had been backed into a corner by Dante and refused to throw the championship game, unwilling in the end to betray his team-mates, Whitey, or himself by not giving everything he had to be the best player he could be.
That decision may have been the right one, but had also been the one that had resulted in Haley being knocked down.
She listened as she heard about Haley leaving Nathan when she had found out the truth of who the man was that had knocked her down, and why he had driven at Nathan in the first place.
More tears fell unchecked as she remembered Haley and Nathan dancing at prom last week, they had looked so happy and in love that night. It had been one of the reasons she had been willing to confess her own feelings to Peyton that night. She'd wanted a chance at having what they had.
Now that she knew Haley had taken Nathan back and forgiven him for his mistakes and his lies, she didn't know what to feel.
Was she hurt that she'd been lied to? Or that two of her best friends had gone through all of this and she had known absolutely nothing about it?
Could she trust their friendship still?
She turned to Debbie, needing to vent out loud the questions that wouldn't stop eating at her.
"But, then how do you tell? If everything a person tells you, no matter how long you've known them, could be a lie… how do you know when it's not!" Brooke asked desperately, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve and sniffing.
Debbie watched in sympathy as the young women in front of her questioned her on the fundamentals of relationships that even she had trouble understanding.
"You can't sometimes… it's just not that simple." Nathan's mother offered.
"Everybody lies." The brunette spat out bitterly remembering how her own boyfriend could go behind her with her best friend.
"Maybe… but there are different kinds of lies, Brooke, and lots of good reasons for using them." Debbie continued. "If I had been more honest in my life, yeah things would have been different… I probably would never have married Dan in the first place, but..."
Brooke snorted at that thinking that would have been a good thing in anyone's eyes.
Deb pressed on with her point. "But then I look at the young man my son is becoming…" She paused to really think about Nathan and his life at the moment. "And I wouldn't go back and change any of that, because I'm proud of who he is and the father I know he'll be to his son."
Brooke stared at the older women, she knew Dan had caused Nathan lots of pain over the years and could only imagine what he had done to his wife during their time together.
"We lie for good reasons, we lie for bad ones. We lie to strangers because we don't trust them with the truth. We lie because it means we don't have to hurt the people we love. We lie because we're afraid the truth isn't something they either want to know, or something we think they won't understand. We lie so we don't get hurt, we lie because we don't want to face the truth ourselves."
Brooke started to silently cry again, what was she more afraid of? Her friends not accepting her truth, or that it just wouldn't matter to them because she didn't really matter to them.
"Nathan is still the same person you used to spend afternoons chasing around this back yard. He may have changed in the years since then, but so have you, we all change Brooke, but that doesn't mean you suddenly become strangers. That'll only happen if you all let it." Deb offered, using her own experiences of letting life get in the way of her friendships.
Brooke sighed as she felt the truth in that.
"Those people in there," Deb said, pointing towards the back door. "All love and care about you Brooke, that isn't a lie. You may not know everything about them, but why are you expecting to, we all have flaws, we all make mistakes, sometimes damn big ones." She laughed a little at the last point. "But love doesn't keep score of those things, it's just something you have to trust in… at least think about what I've said?" She asks as she moves to stand.
"And I'll tell you one thing my son has learned in all of this, is that you can't lie about the important things; no relationship will survive that in the end. He was lucky this time; Haley forgave him pretty easily and he'll think twice before ever being that stupid again hopefully." Debbie looks at Brooke for a moment wishing she knew the right thing to say, or even know what was really going on with the girl in front of her, but that would be for her friends to find out.
"Don't stay out here too long, okay?"
Brooke nods and feels a hand squeeze her shoulder before once again she was left alone out on the back porch with only her thoughts for company. Bringing her arms around her legs she rests the side of her head on her knees and breaths out calmly.
"The truth is in the silence." That's what they say, right? That you can tell more about a person by their actions than by the words they use.
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Peyton was the first to react to the sounds of Brooke screaming filtered into the sitting room over an hour later. Skidding to a halt on the back porch she stood there confused as to what she was seeing.
Brooke was being carried on Nathan's shoulder in the pouring rain as he turned and twisted around the length of the back yard.
She frowned as she realised they were both laughing.
"What the?" Lucas asks as he takes in the view next to her with Haley standing on the other side of him.
She noticed the small smile on Haley's lips that caused her to look back to her friends.
Nathan had suddenly slipped and both he and Brooke had stumbled onto the grass, but while Brooke had managed to keep her balance, Nate had ended up flat on his back, sprawled in the mud covered grass.
Scowling, Peyton folded her arms as Brooke first chased Nathan before the tables turned and he quickly grabbed Brooke securely into his arms. It was still raining very heavily but neither of them seemed to notice as laughter rang around the back garden.
She's going to end up catching a cold Nate! What the hell are you playing at dragging her out there in this weather?
"You know, if they start kissing, I'm staying out of it." Lucas said as he watched the curious spectacle in front of him.
Peyton turned to him as did Haley, she wasn't sure what he was getting at but she would have preferred it if he'd kept his opinions to himself.
Haley shook her head then turned and disappeared back into the house.
Peyton glanced back out for a second then she gave Lucas a small shove before following after Haley. "Idiot."
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"Uh oh!" Nathan said looking back at the porch, both his wife and Peyton had gone back in. "I think we might be in trouble."
"We?" Brooke asked with a giggle, it wasn't like she had ended up here voluntarily.
Nathan rolled his eyes as he looked down at her. "Fine, I'll take the fall, again." He watched her smile as she cuddled into him. "Are you still upset with me?"
Brooke gasped and quickly pulled away from him. She had calmed down some after speaking with Deb, but she knew Nathan wasn't really the issue. Yes what he did hurt, finding out he hadn't thought to come to her when he was in trouble hurt, but she was just beginning to understand that it was her own lies to him and their friends that were causing her the most pain.
He looked so sad as she moved away, but she couldn't be close to him right now or in his arms, and still say what she needed to.
"Nathan… that isn't…" Brooke bit her lip, and sighed. "It's not really you… I haven't, I have to tell you something."
Nathan frowned but made no move to go to her even though she was clearly getting upset. "Brooke? It's okay." He tried to reassure her.
She closed her eyes.
"I have to tell you that… that I… I…"
"Hey." That was as much as Nathan could stand as he went to Brooke and pulled her back into his arms. "There's no rush, Brooke. Take as much time as you need okay, I'm not going anywhere."
"NATHAN SCOTT! Get into this house right now!"
Nathan tilted his head up into the rain and tried not to show his embarrassment at having his mother shout at him like he was five again. "Well, on second thought…"
Brooke giggled and glanced over to see Lucas and Debbie standing waiting on them. His mom had her hands on her hips but there was also an air of amusement in her stance.
"Come on," Nathan said with a sigh as he turned, keeping an arm around Brooke, and guided her back towards the house. "Time to face the music."
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"Hey, Hales don't pay any attention to what Lucas said," Peyton said as she caught up to the pregnant girl in the back utility room. "He was just being a jerk."
Haley turned from where she was folding some towels with a wide grin on her face. "I'm not." She admitted.
Peyton was confused. "Okay?"
"Here," Haley said as she handed over several of the towels to the blonde. "You take care of Brooke, I'll deal with that husband of mine."
It suddenly made sense, Nathan and Brooke would be soaking wet by now, Haley had only left out of concern, not anger.
"Of course I can pretend to be angry with him for his behaviour. He really shouldn't have taken Brooke out in this rain like they're still kids, but I think it might have something to do with them making up."
Peyton grinned, guessing Haley knew exactly how to handle Nathan when he was in trouble. She folded her arms around the towels she now held, she had no intention of being angry with Brooke she just wanted to make sure she was okay.
"Let's go." Haley said as she started back towards the porch. "And try to wipe that grin off your face before we see them Peyton."
"Sure." The blonde agreed even though she couldn't help but keep smiling.
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"Hold it right there, you two. Neither of you are going to set foot in this house and drip mud all over my nice clean carpets." Deb said as she stopped them before they got inside from the porch.
Lucas stood grinning next to her, which caused Nathan to flick some mud from his hand onto his top, smirking when the blonde squawked at the mess he'd made of his cream t-shirt and rushed to the sink to watch it off.
Brooke avoided looking at Lucas so she didn't laugh, but she couldn't help but grin when she saw Peyton walking towards her. She pouted at the blonde hoping she wouldn't get shouted at for her current state.
Peyton ignored her and continued scowling at her even as she rapped a large towel around her body and draped another over her head. "Kick your shoes off and leave them out here." She ordered.
Brooke pouted some more but did as she was told after casting an eye at Deb first.
"Come on let get you dry before you catch a cold." Peyton continued before taking Brooke by the hand and leading her up the stairs.
Nathan, who had yet to be handed a towel from his wife, quickly kicked off his own shoes before holding out his hand.
"Ah, ah. Not so fast." Haley said remaining out of reach. "Lose the rest."
"What?" Nathan asked confused as to why he wasn't allowed in while Brooke had been.
"Lose the rest of your clothes, then I'll give you a towel." Haley clarified with a grin.
"Brooke didn't hav-"
"Brooke was covered all over in mud." His mom pointed out.
Nathan frowned and looked down at himself, there was a big patch of muddy water where he was standing on the porch so he couldn't really complain. Quickly he pulled at his top and his shirt, dropping them in a soggy heap next to him before reaching for his jeans.
He laughed as Haley quickly threw a towel at him and his mother and brother fled the room before they could find out whether or not he wore anything under his jeans.
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"Are you mad at me?" Brooke asked softly as Peyton continued to rub the towel gently to try and dry some of the rain off of her.
Peyton stopped and looked Brooke in the eyes. "I'm not mad." She said, but she knew she was frowning at her friend.
"You look mad."
"Worried, Brooke, not mad. Why would I be mad at you?"
Brooke shrugged and sniffed as water ran down the tip of her nose.
Peyton sighed and picked up a corner of the towel that covered Brooke's head and used it to gently wipe the brunette's cheeks and face dry. This wasn't working, it wouldn't matter how many towels she used, Brooke was soaked through and she had started shivering as well.
"We need to get you out of these wet clothes." She stated.
"And into what?" Brooke asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"I can get something from Nate or Haley." Peyton replied thinking that Brooke should probably take a shower at this point. "Come on lift." She said as she began to help Brooke take her wet clothes off.
Peyton paused the moment she saw Brooke flinch as she raised her arms.
"You okay, Brooke?"
Brooke took a few breaths and nodded as the pain subsided.
Peyton wasn't fooled in the slightest and slowly took each item off Brooke's tender body as gently as she could as the image of Nathan with Brooke held on his shoulder entered her mind.
When Brooke stood in nothing but her underwear Peyton could tell she was nervous about being so exposed. Lifting her chin with her hand Peyton stared into Brooke's brown eyes until she had relaxed again.
"It's just me Brooke, I just want to check and make sure Nathan hasn't hurt you, okay?" She asked softly.
Only when Brooke had nodded to her did Peyton begin looking over the other girl's body looking for any sign of a fresh injury. It didn't take her long to notice redness along a row of stitches that stood out against Brooke's pale skin.
"Damn." She muttered to herself, looking at Brooke for permission, before she ran a finger gently next to the scar. "You've burst two stitches," She informed Brooke. "But I think it'll be fine, just a little sore." She continued having noticed that it looked to be healing well and the skin wasn't bleeding.
Brooke let out a sigh of relief as Peyton straightened back up and smiled at her. She'd known her side had been hurt the moment Nathan had lifted her onto his shoulder, but she just hadn't been sure if it was bad or not. With the rain as heavy as it was she couldn't tell the difference between wet clothes and blood soaked clothes.
"Now, how about a shower and I'll try and find something for you to change into?" Peyton asked as her hands rested at Brooke's waist. She may not have been hurt but she was still wet and shivering in front of her.
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"So I take it from that little display outside that you and Brooke have managed to sort everything out?" Haley asked as Nathan slipped on a dry t-shirt he'd just pulled from his drawer.
"I think so." Nathan replied.
"You think so?"
Nathan frowned remembering that Brooke had been trying to tell him something but had gotten too upset in the end.
"Yeah, but she looked like she had wanted to tell me something…"
"Like what?" Haley asked.
"That's just it, she couldn't… I told her to take as long as she needed, so I guess we'll find out when she's ready." He told her as he rubbed at his hair to dry it.
"You think it's important?" Haley asked, suddenly worried about what else could be going on with her friend.
"Seemed pretty important." Nathan confirmed, before glancing at the small pile of clothes Haley had placed on their bed. "Those for Brooke?"
"Yeah, she's going to need them if she's half as wet as you were."
"Back in a bit." He said as he picked the clothes up, kissed Haley as he passed, and headed towards the room Haley had said Peyton could use.
Walking down the hallway until he reached the guest room, he knocked before opening the door.
"Hey, I brough-"
"GET OUT NATE!" Peyton shouted at him but he'd already pulled the door closed again.
But not quick enough not to have the image of exactly what Brooke looked like in her underwear, bruises and all.
Damn it!
It didn't matter how tightly he closed his eyes, that image wasn't leaving anytime soon.
He'd seen the bruises on her pale skin
"I brought… some clothes… for Brooke." He called out as he stood there frozen.
He'd seen the red scars and black stitches marking his friends skin.
"I'll leave them out here, okay?" He continued even though he wanted to move as far away from the room in front of him as he could, his feet just wouldn't do as they were told.
"Go away!" It was Brooke that called out this time, not in the same angry tone Peyton had so recently directed to him, but in an anguished, pain filled tone.
And this time he ran.
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AN/
Not the happy cute chapter that was promised to someone :( Sorry. Just the way it goes I guess. I only write what the voices tell me to, so take it up with them!
Umm, again, I wish I could move things along quicker but… lets face it, I suck at doing that. And it seems I'm only getting worse!
I think, think, I might get the start of the end of Leyton in two chapters, meaning the beginnings of Breyton should be two chapters after that. So I'll do my best at getting that up before Christmas, but don't hold me to it.
And can I just say, have you guys always been this impatient? Or have I done something special to upset you? You all wait almost a year without a peep about when I'm getting Breyton together when suddenly all I hear is the chanting of-
'What do we want? Breyton! When do we want it? Now!'
I totally blame the new season for this out cry, but I'm working hard to make you guys happy, it's what I live for anyways right?
:D
Next time!
And sorry but it's three in the morning and I have to be up for work in three hours so review replies will get done over the weekend.
Oh and the GDeGraw concert friggin rocked!! Totally worth the pain in the ass travelling I did to get down to London and back the next day. (Hate that city soo much you wouldn't believe!)