Sorry for the wait, it's just that I've had major writer's block. You can kind of tell in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. The lyrics in this chapter are from the song "Fully Alive" by Flyleaf.

Chapter 6 – Fully Alive

Nathan and Brooke sat silently for a few minutes. Both were too tired from lack of sleep to say much. Brooke yawned and laid her head on Nathan's shoulder. "You all right?" Nathan asked softly. "Yeah, it's just…I'm tired. I didn't sleep well last night. Hiding under your covers kind of gets old and my bruises just hurt me too much," she replied. Nathan rested his chin on her head. "I know what you mean."

Telling Layla's story spoken
'Bout how all her bones are broken
Hammers fall on all the pieces
Two months in the cover creases

"It's strange how this isn't strange," he said after another pause of silence.

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you and I, we run in the same circles but we've never actually talked before. We've never had an actual conversation. This should feel awkward, but it doesn't."

"Yeah, it feels," Brooke paused looking for the correct adjective, "right."

Fully alive
More than most
Ready to smile and love life
Fully alive and she knows
How to believe in futures

Brooke's POV:

I'm in love with you. That's what I wanted to say. Instead I said, "It feels right," which is also true but lacking the passion the L word carries it. I have no idea how the hell this happened. I just know that I'm in love with Nathan. It's always confused me, how people fall in love. Does it happen after accumulated likeness? Does being "in like" evolve into being "in love"? Where's Charles Darwin when you need him? Evolution is evolution.

Does love happen all at once like that whore in Madame Bovary assumed it did? The whore was Madame Bovary herself. In my opinion, she was always too immature for the title Madame, even though she was married.

I don't think her problem was love. I don't think it was falling in love all at once, because she didn't, she never loved Charles. I think it was commitment. I think it was the ability to even care. She didn't have that, but I do.

I'm in love with you. I just wish I could say it, but even I'm not ready to hear it out loud. I'm just too overwhelmed.

All my complaints shrink to nothing
I'm ashamed of all my somethings
She's glad for one day of comfort
Only because she has suffered

It did happen, I fell in love all at once. I felt this jolt in my stomach last night, like butterflies on steroids were fluttering about in there. When I saw the regret in his face, after I told him who I really was, that I wasn't this drunken whore, I just felt this twist. I could tell he felt so terrible about it. I'm not psychotic. I don't take pleasure in the fact that he felt bad. It just… I don't know it made me feel worthy. Only someone who cared, someone with a heart, a good person with good intentions, would feel that terrible. Nathan is all of those things.

Then, just ten minutes ago, when his fingers made contact with my skin, I just fell. I fell and I couldn't stop falling. He caressed me so gently, afraid to hurt me, afraid to even touch me there, but knowing it was right. The look in his eyes was something I can't describe. It was a melting pot of emotion. I could tell he cared.

Fully alive
More than most
Ready to smile and love life
Fully alive and she knows
How to believe in futures

It hurts, being touched in those places, the bruised places, but with Nathan it just felt so…right. It felt like he was healing me. I shivered at his touch. I shivered at his touch, something that only happens in romantic novels. Shivering at someone's touch when your not really cold I guess is a reaction to a whole plethora of lovelyemotions, emphasize on the love in that adverb.

I'm in love with you.

I lifted my head up. My stomach was doing too much of that twisty thing again. Plus, I felt that exhaustion, the terrible one. The exhaustion you feel when you are too tired to go back to sleep but you can't stay awake either. I needed coffee.

"Hey, do you want to go get some coffee?" I asked him.

"Sure, I could use some," he said smiling at me.

We got up and he held out his hand for me, again something natural, without a second thought, I grabbed it. I intertwined my fingers in his. We walked silently through the cobblestone streets. The sky was coal gray. A slight breeze was floating through the air making the morning nippy. "The wondrous weather of North Carolina," Nathan breathed. "In the winter, the iciness can slice through you and in the summer, the humidity can drench you."

Fully alive
More than most
Ready to smile and love life
Fully alive and she knows
How to believe in futures

"That was very poetic of you Nathan Scott."

"Well, what can I say? I'm not all I seem to be."

"As am I…"

God, my stomach, I'm starting to loathe my stomach. Enough with the knot twisting, I'm not a sailor!

General POV

After walking silently for ten minutes, Brooke and Nathan arrived at an unwanted destination.

"Best coffee in Tree Hill," Nathan said dryly.

"Yeah, best, unfortunately," Brooke replied.

Karen's Café, what do you know, they ended up at Karen's Café?

Fully alive
More than most
Ready to smile and love life
Fully alive and she knows
How to believe in futures