Chapter Five
Peyton walked into Brooke's hospital room late that night. She had seen Lucas sleeping on the chair beside her bed, so she tip toed over to the other side of her bed.
"Hey B. Davis." she whispered. "I'm sorry. God, I am so sorry Brooke. I've been so horrible for the last two years. And then it hit me today. You're so important to me, and I can't lose you now. We still have to make up after this stupid triangle thing Brooke. I'm sorry I didn't come visit you more, or talk to you more. Lucas, he's really been there for you Brooke. He's so in love with you. Trust me, you'll never have to worry about me again. After you wake up, that boy won't let you out of his sight. Jake's coming tomorrow. I hope you're excited, I remember how much you liked Jake. You said you liked that he made me happy." At this point Peyton had started to cry. She was trying as hard as she could to stay quiet, and not wake up Lucas. "Alright B. Davis, I'm going to leave you two alone for the night. But I'm coming back tomorrow. I promise. Hoes over bros?" She said as she held out her fist. She kneeled back down and just started sobbing.
"Peyton..?" Lucas said warily.
"Oh, Lucas I didn't want to wake you up. I'm so sorry."
"Peyton what are you doing here?"
"Luke, I needed to say sorry. I need her Lucas, I need Brooke. She's my best friend. What was wrong with me? I've been so cold to her for two years. The two years of her life she needed me most."
"It's ok Peyton. Brooke knows how you feel. Hell, she's probably already forgiven you. We just got to get her wake up."
"Luke, I'm sorry about earli-"
"It's ok Peyton. I understand. I just hope that finally cleared your confusion. We all know Jake's the one for you Peyton, you just had to realize it yourself."
"It hit me today, when I kissed you- Oh god, Brooke I didn't mean to, and don't you be thinking 'Oh a kiss always means something' because it didn't Brooke, I swear. I realized it today that I'm completely in love with Jake, and it took a stupid kiss for me to realize I have no romantic feelins for this guy. He's all yours Brooke."
Lucas finally felt like maybe the stars were lining up again. Now he just needed to find a way to give Brooke more time.
"Lucas I'm going to go. I just needed to talk to her."
"Thanks Peyton, I know she really needed that too." He gave her a small hug, and sat back into his chair. After a while, he dozed back to sleep.
- - - - -
Lucas woke up to Brooke's parents shuffling through the room.
"Lucas, what are all these letters?" Brooke's mom asked as she moved a box full of letters. It hadn't been there the night before, and he honestly had no idea. He shrugged his shoulders, and rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to wake up.
"They're all addressed to Brooke, Brooke's parents, or Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis. What is going on?"
Lucas realized then that these were all letters from people who had read the article. There must have been fifty letters in there. How could they have gotten there that fast? He put the first article into yesterday's paper. Maybe people in New York weren't so bad after all.
"I don't know Mrs. Davis, why don't you open one and read it?"
"Ok, I might as well."
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Davis,
I don't know your daughter. I've only heard her name for the first time in yesterday's paper. But I'm begging you, please do not terminate her life support. You have to give her more time, and give her a little more faith. You'll never know how much it hurts to pull that plug, but I do. I lost my son two years ago after we had him on life support for four years. I hated seeing him lying there, just as much as I know you hate seeing Brooke lying in her hospital bed. So I made the decision to terminate the life support that had kept him alive for so long. It seemed like the right choice, you never hear about people waking up from these kinds of things. It wasn't until after that I read stories about people waking up after ten to fifteen years. Please, don't take her life just yet, I know there's still hope.
My prayers are with you,
Deborah Hart
Lucas noticed that Brooke's mother had started to cry. She had dropped the letter and was sitting there with her head in her hands. Lucas picked up the letter and read it.
" I can't Lucas. I can't leave her like this anymore. She deserves more than a hospital bed." She sobbed
This woman was set on angering him. He knew she hadn't meant to, but did she read the same letter he just read. There were dozens others, all of them saying similar things, in a box right next to her feet. Why was she so against letting Brooke stay alive?
- - - - -
"NATHAN!" Haley stormed into the apartment.
"What's up Hales?"
"Between emails and signatures of people Brooke knows, I've got around a hundred signatures." she said quietly.
"Haley, that's awesome! You should be proud."
"Proud. A hundred signatures is pathetic, Nathan. I need more."
"Haley, most people don't know a hundred people, let alone have a hundred people sign to help you out."
"Right, to me and you, a hundred is a lot. But not too the Davis' " she said the last part of the sentence very hoity-toitily.
"Ok, so I see your point. What do we do?" he asked.
Haley sat for a moment, trying to formulate some form of plan. Suddenly, she smiled and ran into the other room. Nathan knew she had something going on in her head. She came running out back with two pads of paper and a handful of pens.
"Ok, Nathan, we're going to go out into the streets for the next hour, and get every person who walks by to sign this."
"Haley, isn't that cheating?"
"How will they know Nathan? It's not like they cared before!"
She had a good point. "Ok, let's go!"
"Oh, I am so a genius." She yelled.
Nathan smiled and kissed her before they left. His wife was definitely crazy.
- - - - -
Lucas walked down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee when he noticed Peyton stapling something to a bulletin board. He walked over to see what it was.
"Hey Peyton, whatcha got?"
"Oh, I'm finished with the posters. Do you wanna see it?" she asked.
"Yeah! Of course!"
She pulled out and 11 x 17 inch piece of paper. It was a definite Peyton Sawyer drawing. Classic black and white. But this was probably the best drawing he had ever seen her do. She had drawn Brooke, slightly to the left of the center of the page. She was sitting down, saddle style, and was wearing a white dress that appeared to sparkle,along with her sparkling eyes. Her hair was down and wavy. Peyton had drawn in angel wings behind Brooke. There was a pink ribbon tied to her hand that flowed throughout the page. All the information for Brooke's 'party' was inscribed on the ribbon in white. It was beautiful, she looked beautiful.
Peyton noticed Lucas had tears in his eyes.
"Is it ok?" she asked.
"It's better than ok, Peyton. It's perfect" He said hugging her. "Thanks again for helping her Brooke. It means so much to me, but even more to her."
"I love her too, Lucas. We're not going to let anything happen, I promise. I gotta go though, I'm picking up Jake at the airport in like half and hour."
"I bet you're excited to see him."
"Yeah I really am. Take care, Luke. I'll see you at the 'par-tay.' " She left through the double doors, and Lucas went to get that cup of coffee, or two. He was definitely going to need it if he was pulling an all-nighter.
- - - - -
"Lucas!" Haley said as she skipped into Brooke's room.
"Hey Hales, Nate. How did the signatures go?"
"We got seven hundred, Luke!"
"Ok, there is no way she knows that many people Haley."
"Ok, shh we cheated. But how will they know that?" she winked. "Besides the first pages are all people we all know. It's totally believable."
Lucas laughed. Haley was definitely excited about her idea.
"This is great guys, thanks."
"No problem man." Nate said. He made his hand into a fist and held it out so Luke could give him the rock.
"Wow, she looks great today, doesn't she?" Haley said. She was still glowing from her idea.
"Yeah, she really does." Lucas replied. He looked at his watch. It was almost 6:30. They had an hour until people would start to arrive. "Hey guys, maybe we should go start setting everything up." They were holding the 'party' in Central Park. Peyton had put up flyers practically everywhere, and Lucas' newspaper article would help grab attention as well. He knew there were just two people he needed to be there. He decided to leave them a note, and prayed they would stop by to see Brooke at some point before the night was over.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis,
Please come to Central Park tonight. There's something I think you would like to see before you guys leave New York. You do not want to miss this. Please come, for Brooke.
-Lucas
The three of them said goodbye to Brooke and headed to the park.
- - - - -
Lucas was completely surprised by the turnout at Brooke's party/vigil. Hundreds of people had showed up. There were candles, and music was playing. People were dancing and having a great time. It made Lucas feel good, he knew that this is exactly how Brooke would want this to be. People weren't sad in her memory, they were having a good time. He just hoped it helped. Peyton had showed up late, arriving hand and hand with Jake. As soon as he arrived, Lucas gave Jake the biggest hug.
"Man, we have missed you up here. It's so good to see you. Where's Jenny?"
"I left her in Tree Hill with my parents for the week. I'm here to help you guys, and then I'll figure out what I'm doing. I do know that I'm not leaving this girl ever again." He said as he kissed Peyton. She giggled and smiled, and they walked over to where the music was playing and started to dance.
Nathan walked over to Lucas. "Dude, is that Jake?"
"Yep, she finally realized it Nate."
"God, it's about time." He said and then walked over to the drinks table
.Lucas walked over to where Mouth's movie was playing. There were tons of pictures of Brooke. As a little girl, in middle school, and then in high school. There were pictures of her at formals and in cheerleading uniforms. It wasn't until he saw a picture of him with his arm around her and looking up at him with those beautiful eyes of hers that he started to choke up.
"Lucas, can we talk to you?" He turned around to see both Brooke's parents.
"Ok. What's up?" He noticed Brooke's mom was already crying.
"Lucas, we know you're trying to convince us to not terminate Brooke's life support, and I have to admit you're doing a great job. All of this is amazing, but just can't do this all again." Mrs. Davis said
"I don't understand." Lucas said slowly.
"Brooke's grandfather, my wife's father, was kept on life support for ten years after he had an accident. We waited ten years and he never woke up. My mother-in-law spent most of her retirement trying to save the one she loved and she didn't gain anything from it. Just more a broken heart."
"But ten years is so much longer than two! You haven't even given her a chance to pull through this. You know how much life is inside your daughter! Just give her a chance. PLEASE!"
"I'm not sure if we can hold on anymore Lucas. I'm sorry."
