AN: This is the moment of truth for Brooke. It is about time the words she spoke were factual.

Haley didn't even know what to say. How could anyone know what to say? All she knew how to do was hold on, hold on to everything she ever wanted. That was the only reason she still had Nathan. Taking that back, she really didn't have Nathan now, but she was holding on to what they were. That is all she knew how to do, and she was going to hold onto Brooke as long as she needed her. She couldn't speak, speaking the right words were not something she possessed anymore. After numerous attempts at the right words, she had failed; she was not going to risk failure with Brooke. She did not need Haley's failure.

Brooke's tears stop flowing a long time ago, but she liked the feeling of another body close to hers. In high school it was nameless boys, but now she was left alone, her own body was her only comfort. And it did not comfort her like she needed. Haley's did though.

She pulled back from Haley's shoulder. It was time to tell the truth. Or at least it was time to attempt the truth. Haley deserved it, and hell, so did Brooke. It needed to be out in the open. It would save her from more pain along the way. And that was the last thing either of the two needed. "All my life, all I wanted was for her to see me, really see me. It took 18 years but when my company started to prosper I got the phone call I always wanted. And at first I thought the attention and focus was on me. I soon realized it was about the company all along. She never came back for me. I pretended I didn't know, but I knew, I just liked the fact that someone was around. Victoria was the only one in my life, and I couldn't let go of her with the fear I would be left all alone forever. That is my biggest fear. It always has been."

Haley grabbed Brooke's hands and put them in her own, "You will never be alone. You will always have me. I will ensure you that I will never leave again."

"The reason I didn't have you was because of her. She took everything away, yet I stayed, I stayed because I thought it was my only option."

"Well it looked like you broke free."

"You heard?" she couldn't believe that Haley heard her conversation with her mother. She did not want Haley to even feel even an ounce of the wrath of Victoria Davis. Look where it had gotten Brooke, Haley didn't need any more, especially some directed towards Brooke.

"Every word. I am so sorry, Brooke. I thought I knew how malevolent Victoria was from my one conversation with her. But then I didn't realize that she was your mother, you do not deserve it. Not one single word." Haley looked to Brooke again, and she wasn't buying it, "Brooke, you do know that this is not your fault, that your mother failed miserably at her job to care and to love for you. She is an evil bitch, that is what she is, and she does not deserve you as the wonderful, beautiful, successful daughter you are."

She couldn't accept those words as true, not one of the adjectives Haley listed described her. Not anymore at least, not since Victoria re-entered her life.

"Brooke, what else as she conditioned you to believe?" Haley quickly realized that Victoria had formed Brooke to her liking in the past four years, and Brooke had become a mannequin in it all. The girl that sat next to her was created by Victoria, and Haley was afraid that it was going to be difficult to unprogram Brooke.

"I have always been really naïve; Haley, Victoria just helped me to see what I couldn't."

"Naïve? Naïve, Brooke? I was naïve in high school. You were always strong, you spoke your mind, and you didn't care what anyone else said."

"It was an act."

"I am starting to see that now. But some truth had to be deep inside. You were the strongest person I knew," she changed her wording, "you are the strongest person I know. And if anyone can get through this with a complete turnaround, it is you. You are Brooke Davis; you take shit from no one."

"Except from my own mother," it really saddened her. Haley was right though, in high school, Brooke spoke her mind and she did not care who she hurt in the process. She knew that in the process Haley had been harmed, she was grateful that Haley was here now though. But as she grew up and realized that the agony she was experiencing was killing her, she couldn't hide anymore. And her heart broke, Lucas broke her heart. She was immensely grateful though for him, and that heartbreak. If she did not experience it then she did not think she could have made it to this point. And as it appears, she barely made it anyways. But with Lucas' heartbreak her eyes were opened to what pain looked like. She knew that Victoria was destroying her psyche, but she was holding onto to the slim chance of reconciliation. The fraction was diminishing.

"Well today you didn't. What changed?"

"You," it was the truth; she couldn't do it without Haley. She never really had strength unless someone else was in her presence. Now that she knew the truth that Victoria had extracted Haley from her life because she knew it would weaken her, she was gathering her strength back. Victoria had taken that too. That process would be long, but the famously vibrant Brooke Davis would show her face again.

"Me? I can barely stand on my own two feet."

"But they are your own two feet; I have been standing on someone else's for so long. You are hurting, it saddens me how badly you are, but you are still going. You have a son that needs you, so you will not give up. You will never give up. To me giving up is just so much easier than holding on. But underneath your pain you are strong, Haley. And you will not let one accident alter your life forever. You are so strong."

"I am not. I wasn't. I wasn't until you came back, Brooke. It has taken me four months to even be angry with Nathan. I didn't even know I was angry. You brought out the anger that I needed, and I needed it badly. I thought that his dream had been taken away from him, and nothing could have been worst. But he took away my dreams too, and he doesn't care. I care, I care now, and it is because you gave me the strength I needed."

"I was just giving you perspective, Haley."

"Well it was the perspective I needed to change things. Things are going to be a whole lot different around here. I have you to thank for that. And you know what, Brooke?"

"What?"

"You are giving me another reason to hold on, and never give up."

"What is the reason?"

"I have a friend that needs me. I have not been there for her when she needed me. But she is here now, and I am going to regain my stamina so I can help her gather hers," Brooke gave her a sad smile. But Haley realized that her words were not enough. Not now at least. Brooke was suffering the loss of her mother, and the realization that she never really had her to begin with. Her words would not suffice. No one's words would suffice. Not now.

"If you hold on, does that mean I can give up?"

"You better fight like hell, Brooke."

"If I stay in Tree Hill, I lose my company."

"It is yours, Brooke; no one can take it away from you."

"Don't worry; Victoria will do everything in her power to take every single thing away. Until I am truly alone."

"Brooke, I am here."

"You are here now."

"You think I am going to leave you when you need me the most?"

"I don't know what to think."

"Brooke, last time was Victoria's fault. If I do departure, then it is all on me. And I never do that to you. Never. I promise you."

"Who am I without my company? I didn't go to college, how far am I am going to go? And Victoria was the one who made it as big as it is. It would still be in my bedroom if it wasn't for her. The high end clientele, the couture, it was all Victoria. I can't do what she did."

"Brooke you created the company, Victoria might have made it bigger, but it was your creation. And you can do it again. I have the utmost confidence in you. They are your designs, they are your masterpiece. Victoria cannot run a company without designs. It will fail, and she will realize that the company's success was you all along."

"A little too late, don't you think?"

"Someday she will realize that the greatness inside you is all yours and it was a shame that she didn't take a second to see. It is a damn shame, Brooke."

"That woman will never care that she lost me, she never has before, and she never will. She will find another weakling girl and pry on her, just this time the stupid girl falling for her tactics won't be her daughter. Lucky for her she only has one of those."

Tonight was not the night to change Brooke's world with her words. She was defensive, and she was, as much as Haley did not want to admit it, she was weak. It was not the time to try and change things. Not yet. She was going to let Brooke dictate it for now, "What's next?"

"We go to sleep, and tomorrow my whole world changes. If I survive tomorrow, then I am doing this, if not, I might be leaving Tree Hill for good."

"I need you, Brooke. I need you here."

"Let's see what tomorrow brings, Haley."

"What if it brings you away from me? I don't think I can do it again. I lost you once; I will not do it again."

"I want to be here with you, and with Jamie. I really do. But the only thing that I know how to do is run when times get tough. I do not want to take down the people around me, especially those I care about the most. If I foresee my disaster harming you, I will have to leave. You have been through enough. But we just have to see what tomorrow brings."

"Okay, Brooke. What you know is to run, and what I know is to fear tomorrows. I never know what it holds, and sometimes tomorrows are worst than todays. I am hoping for a better tomorrow. What are you hoping for?"

"That I have tomorrow's tomorrow," she knew she was running out of time and out of luck. She shouldn't be here right now, not in Lucas' kitchen, today was not guaranteed for her. Someone upstairs must be pulling for her, because her tomorrows were discounted to the desperate girl. She didn't know when her luck would run out. She hoped it wasn't this tomorrow. She wasn't ready to say goodbye.

Lindsey sat in the hallway listening to the girls. She was not trying to be invasive. Brooke and Haley were not strong enough for the severity of their conversation; Lindsey wanted to be present if either girl could not handle it. She had her own silent tears sliding down her face, her back to the girls. It was not fair for two such successful and strong women to be stuck in her fiancé's kitchen struggling to breathe. When she heard silence she stood up, she feared silence. She peaked around the corner and saw the two girls sitting still against the refrigerator. It appeared that neither could support themselves nor help the other up. It was time for her rescuing tactics to come in play.

Brooke was relieved when she saw Lindsey's presence in the kitchen. She couldn't handle anymore of the conversation, nor could she pull herself up from despair. She didn't care who saw her anyone, she was reaching her hand up just asking for help – and it did not make her weak. Screw you, Victoria.

Lindsey was glad that her presence was not seen as an intrusion; both girls seemed to need that extra support to help them up. And that is what she was going to give them – whether it was a simple extra hand to pull them to their feet, or it was more severe, she was not backing away. She pulled Brooke up first, and made sure she was strong enough to walk before she let go. Brooke's eyes extended saddened gratitude. Then Brooke slowly made it out of the room. When she returned to assist Haley, Lindsey noticed that she had turned away. She feared that more tears had formed; she was sure Haley's tear ducts were in overdrive. Before today, Lindsey had never seen Haley's tears. The pain was visible on her face every time she went to the Scott's residence, but it was never too much for Haley to handle. Well apparently it was.

Lindsey thought that Haley didn't need to be helped up at the point; she needed someone to sit down with her. So she complied with Haley's unsaid wishes. "Is there room for another?" she was not expecting a response from Haley.

"Always," she turned to Lindsey. They had grown to be become the best of friends after Lindsey edited Lucas' first book. All of Haley's friends had gone away, and in a way she was alone too. Lindsey was new to the area, and the two easily became friends with their common interest – Lucas. They have grown accustomed to reading each other without words. Haley knew when she turned to meet Lindsey's eyes, all would be said.

And it was. "Once she believes you are here for the long haul, she will turn around. She has been hurt and conditioned by absences in her life, it is hard for her. Brooke knows how much you love her, and once she breaks through the encasement her mother has covered her in, your old best friend will be back," and just in case Haley didn't believe her, "I promise you."

"I am sorry that I have not been here for you. I have been such an awful friend."

Lindsey and Brooke seemed to have a common characteristic – they fringed at attention addressed towards them. "Haley, you do not need to apologize to me. You are my friend, and you needed me. You need me. That is what friends do. Anyways, you showered me with support before; it is my turn to return the favor."

"How you holding up?"

"It will be two years next week," she did not know how she slipped into 'tell-all' mode, but her own truth slipped out. Maybe it was the kitchen.

Haley put a supportive hand on Lindsey's knee, "Don't you ever think just because I am going through something that I cannot be here for you. It goes both ways, I would a terrible friend if I let all the attention fall on me, when you needed it more."

"Haley, we cannot compare our separate tragedies."

"I just want you to assure me that you will come to me, regardless of time or what 'I'm going through.'"

Lindsey heard each word that Haley spoke, but that didn't mean she believed them. They were incomparable. Right now Haley was going through the lost of a marriage, a family, and love; she had only lost one thing – one important person.

Brooke did not sleep well that night, and this time it wasn't the couch. All these new thoughts were in her mind, or maybe they weren't so new after all, they had just reemerged after a long absence. She felt so weak, and drained. Again, normally recurring emotions for her, but she normally let them be covered up by her makeup or fancy clothes. She didn't see the need this time, not anymore. She realized that the occupants of Lucas's house were not going to put her on a pedestal. She just had to make sure she extracted herself from her own.

Her eyes were closed, but she definitely was not sleeping. She quickly realized that if she was going to be staying in this house, Jamie Scott was going to be her alarm clock – regardless of what time she wanted to get up. "Are you sleeping, Aunt Brooke?" his attempt at a whisper did not bode well.

But his attempt at getting a smile out of Brooke: right on the money. He was sure by her response of grabbing him and pulling him close to her, that she was no longer sleeping. "Good morning, my godson."

"Good morning, my godmother," he couldn't retain his giggles. He knew that the previous night was emotion-packed, but he was simply five, he still had the hope that the next day would be better than the last.

"What time is it, Little Man?"

"Well, the sun is still down, so I guessing it is too early," using Brooke's same device as yesterday. He was a quick learner, that Jamie Scott.

How could this little boy not put a smile on anyone's face? "You know what, Jamie, I was wrong yesterday."

"You were?"

"This is the perfect time to be up. We can watch the sun rise. Have you ever done that before?" Brooke remembered several times in high school – when Haley and Nathan were going through their separation period – that Haley had woken Brooke up because she could not sleep through her despair, and the duo watched the sun rise. Haley said that as long as the sun rose each day, then Nathan and Haley's love was not over. And each day, the sun would rise. Today Brooke was going to test the theory. She would do it for Nathan and Haley's love, and she would do it for her own.

"I don't think I have. What is so special about it though?"

"Well, Jamie, it is just something you have to see for yourself, and then you can decide. It happens every day, but it is just something you need to see to believe."

"Believe what, Aunt Brooke?"

"Believe that the sun is really going to rise, and that we have another day."

"So when the sun rises today, and we see it, it means that you have another try."

"Another try?" But she soon figured out what the precocious boy was getting at. When the sun rose, it meant she had another attempt at her happiness. Maybe that was not exactly what he was trying to get at, maybe that magnitude was too large for him to grasp, but it was the truth. Each sun rising meant that it was not over, whatever that may be. For Haley it was Nathan's love, and for Brooke it would her happiness. Let's just hope the sun does rise today. "Let's go see a new day begin," she extended her hand out to her godson, and he held on as the pair walked out the nearest door.

Brooke quickly decided that the best place to see the sun rise would be on top of her rental car. So she carefully helped Jamie get up, and she followed suit. The two laid back, looking into the still darkened sky. "Aunt Brooke?"

"What is it Jamie?" there was concern in the little boy's question.

"Why are adults always sad?" well in truth, not all adults were generally depressed people, but the ones in Jamie's lives appeared to be. It was all he knew, unfortunately for him and the adults in his life.

And Brooke knew this, she also knew that her godson was not naïve enough to think that once you grew older that everything would automatically accumulate to sadness; he just wanted to know why the ones in his lives seemed to get more than their share. "Sometimes, things have to be really bad, and people have to be really sad, for things to get better."

"So you have to get sad to be happy? Why can't you just start out happy?"

"Well, you do, Jamie. We start out happy, but sometimes bad things happen and our happiness goes away."

"When did yours go away?"

"Well, sometimes people are never truly happy," she did not want to lie to him, he deserved the truth, in actuality he deserved the world, a happy one at that.

"Never in your whole life you were happy, Aunt Brooke?"

Was she ever really? There were bouts of times that yes, one could say Brooke Davis was a happy girl, but there were the bouts of unhappiness that trumped them. "Sometimes people pretend. Do you ever pretend you are someone else?"

"Sometimes, well I used to pretend that I was Daddy and I was in the Pros," but not anymore, not since the accident, the boy's face changed, "sometimes I think that maybe Daddy is just pretending too. Like maybe, maybe he really does want us around, he is just disappointed. What did you pretend to be?"

"Well sometimes I pretended that I had a million dollar clothing company."

"You don't have to pretend anymore, do you?"

"I don't have to pretend, it happened."

"Did you ever pretend something and it not happen?" he was curious where Brooke was going to take this.

"Everything else, Buddy, everything else."

"So you are sad everyday? Of your whole life?"

"Well I can name you some very happy days."

"What are they?"

"Most of them have to do with you."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you are one special little boy, do you know that?"

"I am just five."

"That may be true, but the day you were born was probably one of the best days of my life. I loved you the second I saw you."

"What was your best day ever?"

"Two days ago," the day was filled with two-sided emotions. She was introduced to the new life in Tree Hill and it devastated her, Haley's devastation pained her. But James Lucas Scott re-entered her life, and she would be forever grateful for all the pain, just to have him in her life. There was something about the boy that gave her hope for the next day; she didn't even need the sun today.

"What happened then?"

"I got to see you for the first time in a long time, way too long."

"Well then two days ago was one of my favorite days too."

"How come?"

"Well I always have heard stories about my godmother, but I really didn't know her at all. Two days ago that changed, and she bought me all the ice cream I wanted," now addressing her directly, "Aunt Brooke, I am glad you came back."

"Me too, Buddy, me too," she was, she really was. But her mind could not be fixated solely on the positives of her return. Haley's demise and her own were lingering, and if this sun didn't rise she wasn't sure that things were going to be worth it after all.

AN: The shell is slowly being broken into pieces. I know there is a lot of sadness in this story, but just like Brooke told Jamie, there needs to be times of unhappiness, until the real happiness is found. It takes time, I hope you can respect the process. Anyways, I am glad some are liking the Brooke and Jamie relationship, I think it is a strong one. There needs to be at least one in Tree Hill. Anyways, let me know what you think. Thanks. Peace.