A/N: Two updates in the same day? Am I crazy? Nah, I'm just making up for slacking off yesterday and not updating. Anyway, many thanks to everyone for getting through that last chapter. This one, I think, is much better. Thanks so much for all the reviews that I've gotten so far. They really do encourage writers (or at least me) to keep writing and working to make the story as good as it possibly can be. So onto the drama filled goodness:

__________________________________

Lucas looked at the screen. The screenplay, it was done. He grabbed his cell phone and called his producer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Julian, it's Lucas."

"Lucas! Tell me some good news."

"I finished it."

"Excellent." Julian laughed good-naturedly. "And it's perfect, right?"

"Yeah, just how we both agreed." Lucas hit the print button and watched his masterpiece come out of his printer one page at a time.

"So, I got some good news on my end," he said.

"Oh yeah?"

"I got a studio all ready to start pre-production once I get them the final draft!"

Lucas grinned. Somehow, he had gotten exciting for this project. Now, he couldn't remember why he didn't want to turn Ravens into a movie. And much of that was thanks to Julian.

Saying that Julian was enthusiastic about the book, was putting it mildly. Lucas had caught Julian reading his book every time he saw him. The young writer was grateful for the producer. Thanks to Julian, Lucas didn't have to deal with the guilt over what happened with Peyton. He hated himself for having hurt her, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Writing the screenplay also had given him an excuse to avoid spending time with Lindsey and Haley. He couldn't deal with either of them while he was in such a state. But now that he was done…

He groaned.

Julian was surprised. "I thought you would be happy about that."

"Oh, sorry. I am happy, I'm just…" Lucas searched for words. "I'm a little disappointed that my job is done."

"Ah, but the movie is just beginning," Julian said. "And plus, now you have the time to write me my next movie."

"We'll see. I don't think you'll be able to afford the next one."

"After all the money we're going to make on this one? I doubt that," Julian said. "Anyway, bring me my screenplay so we can celebrate."

---------

Feeling a pound lighter after emptying her bladder, Peyton made her back to her hospital bed, carrying her cup. When she parted the curtain, she was overjoyed to see a doctor standing there. The nurse took the sample from the patient, as Peyton was helped back into bed. The doctor was quiet as the IV got reconnected.

Once everything was in place, the young doctor turned to her. "Hello, Miss Sawyer. I'm Doctor Blake and I'm going to be checking you out, okay?"

He held out his hand and Peyton shook it. He looked young, almost Doogie Howserish. He had a warm smile and a firm handshake. His presence immediately put her at ease.

After a quick checkup, he scribbled something on her chart. "Okay, so you passed out."

"So, I've been told."

"How are you feeling now?"

Peyton stopped to think before responding, "Much better, truth be told. Although, I think that has a lot to do with not being suffocated by the smell of coffee."

"I see. Listen, I'm thinking that you're fine, but I want to get some X-rays just to be sure."

"Okay," was all she said. What else could she say?

"I'm going to need to ask you a few questions first." He looked her in the eyes. "Are you pregnant?"

Peyton sputtered. "No! I mean, I haven't even had sex… well, I guess I did…ONCE, but… No. Not pregnant."

"When was your last period?"

"I don't remember, a while ago." Peyton saw Dr. Blake raise an eyebrow. "It's not like that. I'm just really irregular, okay?"

"I'm going to go check on a few things, and I'm going to run some tests on you." The doctor nodded towards the book on the chair beside her bed. "Good book."

---------

Brooke nervously wringed her hands. She hated how far LA was from New York. She had tried Peyton's cell phone a hundred time before even getting on the plane and each time her call had been sent directly to voice mail. She needed someone to talk to. Brooke looked at her watch. She still had a little under three hours to go before the plane landed in LA. At least, it was a private plane, so she could use her cell phone.

She knew what she had to do. She selected the number from her speed dial.

"Hello?"

Brooke took a deep breath. This must be the girlfriend, then. "Yes, hi. May I speak with Lucas Scott, please?"

Lindsey didn't like the raspy voice on the other line. The caller sounded like a phone sex operator or something. "I'm sorry, Lucas is unavailable right now."

"Listen, it is imperative that I talk to Lucas." If Brooke didn't already have reason to dislike the new girlfriend, she was giving the feisty brunette plenty of reasons now. "Please?"

"Well, you can leave him a message and I'll make sure that he gets it."

Brooke sighed. "Fine. Please tell Lucas that Brooke Davis called and that he needs to call me back as soon as possible. Also, tell him that his girlfriend is a bitch."

The designer hung up. That didn't make her feel any better. In fact, she felt worse. How could Lucas choose that "C U Next Tuesday" over Peyton? Brooke was pretty convinced that Lindsey wasn't going to give Broody the message after Brooke's parting shot at her.

So, she chose another number from her speed dial.

"Scott Residence."

"Nate…" Brooke was thankful to hear a familiar voice.

"Brooke? Is that you?" Nathan hadn't heard from Brooke in a while, but he immediately knew that something was up. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Peyton. She's in the hospital." She couldn't hold it in any longer. She started to cry. "I'm on my way to see her now."

"The hospital? Why? Is she going to be okay?" Nathan could feel the fear swelling up in his throat, making it difficult to swallow.

"I don't know. I've been trying her cell phone but all I get is her stupid voice mail." She let out a small sob. "I'm so scared."

"What can I do? Just tell me and I'll do it…"

"I tried calling Lucas but… he wasn't there."

"I'll make sure he knows," Nathan promised. "Listen, if you find out anything, anything at all… call us, okay?"

"I will. And Nate?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Haley there? I kinda wanna talk to her for a bit."

"Yeah, sure. Give me a second."

Brooke took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She felt better knowing that Nathan was going to make sure that Lucas knew the news. By the time that Brooke heard Haley pick up the phone, the designer was almost feeling like herself.

"Oh my God, Brooke." Haley couldn't believe it. "What happened to Peyton? Nathan just told me that she's in the hospital."

"I don't know, Tutor Mom," Brooke answered honestly. "I just got a call from the hospital telling me that Peyton was there after passing out."

"She passed out?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately that's all the information they've given me. I've tried calling her but I can't reach her."

Haley thought for a second. "Did you call the hospital?"

"Yeah, but they can't release medical information to non-family members," Brooke huffed. "They were most unimpressed with my arguments that P. Sawyer was like my sister."

"I'm sure she's going to be fine, Brooke," Haley told her friend, soothingly. "You know her, she's a fighter."

"I don't know, Haley. This thing with Lucas really messed her up." Brooke had no doubts that Lucas had talked to his best friend about his encounter with his ex.

Haley breathed out, "How bad?"

"It's real bad, Hales. It was like when they broke up all over again. Except worse somehow." Brooke knew that Peyton wouldn't be thrilled knowing that her best friend was disclosing such details, but the brunette needed to talk to someone. "It was like she lost all faith in them. I've never heard anyone sound so hopeless."

"Poor Peyton. I can understand her being upset. Lucas should have handled it better."

"No shit, Haley." Brooke was surprised at the way that came out. She just was in no mood to deal with Haley downplaying the wrongs that Lucas did. "You know as well as I do that he shouldn't have done half of the things he did."

"Granted, but it's not like Peyton didn't kiss him back."

"You know if it had only been a kiss, I don't think it would have been that bad."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Haley asked Brooke. "What else happened?"

"That coward. What did Lucas tell you happened in that elevator, Tutor Mom?"

"That they kissed. She told him that she loved him and he told her he had a girlfriend."

Brooke burst out laughing. "That's it?"

"Yeah. Why? What else happened?"

"For one, Lucas told Peyton that he loved her, too. For two, that conversation happened after they had sex."

"What?"

---------

Lucas walked in to his bedroom to find Lindsey sitting on his bed. "Hey, what's up?"

"You forgot your cell phone." Lindsey handed him the phone. She could smell the alcohol on him. "So, where did you go? I got out of the shower to find that you were gone."

"I'm sorry, I just went to see Julian and drop off the final draft of the screenplay." Lucas looked his girlfriend over, expecting her to squeal with delight. She didn't. She didn't seem even remotely happy about him finishing the screenplay. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Someone called your cell while you were out."

Lucas felt his heart drop. Peyton.

"Who?"

"Brooke Davis."

Crap. Lucas had been waiting for his ex-girlfriend to call him and chew his ass out for what he did to Peyton. He looked over at Lindsey again. Brooke would never have told his girlfriend what happened. Would she?

"What did Brooke say?"

"She wants you to call her back. She said she needs to talk to you."

"That's it? That's all that she said?" Lucas let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Lindsey didn't notice.

"Yeah, that's all," she lied. She hoped that Lucas would know that she was lying and try to find out what was wrong.

Unfortunately for her, he just nodded. Lucas had enough on his mind to notice his girlfriend playing mind games with him. He had to worry about the dark-haired landmine, Brooke Davis. Lucas knew that he couldn't call Brooke right then. On the other hand, he knew that if he waited to long, she would probably retaliate.

Just then there was a knock on the door. The two of them lifted their heads just in time to see Nathan open the door and walk right into the bedroom. Lucas stood up, noticing at once that Nathan's expression was worried.

"Nate? What's wrong? Is it Haley? Jamie?"

Nathan shakes his head. "No. Luke, it's Peyton."

Lucas felt his world crash down around him.

--------

Peyton glared at the new nurse who came in. "No! No more blood! You guys have taken out like twenty pints already!" Okay, she was exaggerating, but had been pricked and prodded far too many times and she was sick of it.

The nurse laughed. "No more blood. I'm just checking your vitals. Promise."

Peyton huffed. It had been over four hours since she had last seen Dr. Blake and the whole thing was wearing on her. She hated hospitals. There were far too many bad memories involving hospitals for her to ever feel comfortable in one. She was nervous and lonely and wanted nothing more than to have someone she loved with her. Her cell phone had been returned under the strict instructions that she not use it. Peyton wanted to call someone just so she wouldn't feel so alone.

It was too much and Peyton started to cry. After a few minutes, she heard the curtain open and her eyes locked onto to those of her best friend.

"Brooke?"

"Peyton…"

Brooke walked over to her friend and gave her a hug. She had been so scared as to the state she would find Peyton in, but she had to admit that except for being too skinny, Peyton looked fine.

"What are you doing here?" Peyton held onto Brooke for dear life. She was so scared to realize that she was dreaming and that she was still all alone.

"The hospital called me. I couldn't leave you all alone surrounding by hot young doctors."

Peyton laughed and gripped Brooke tighter. "Thank you."

When they parted, Brooke pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat in it. "You okay?"

Peyton nodded. "At least I think so. This doctor came in, said he wanted to do some X-rays, asked me a few questions, and then left, saying he was going to run some tests on me. That was four hours ago. Since then, I've had every needle in the hospital inside me."

Brooke raised an eyebrow. "Kinky."

"Maybe for you."

Brooke let out a deep breath. "So, how much do you love me for being here in your time of need?"

"Oh no, Brooke. What did you do?"

"I may have told Haley what happened between you and Broody."

"What?" Peyton rolled her head back. "Let me guess. She's not mad at him, but she's pissed at me."

"Actually, no. She's pretty furious with Lucas. Apparently when he told her what happened, he left out a few details."

"That's a surprise."

"Yeah, and there's something else." Brooke gave her friend a sheepish smile.

"Oh God. I'm afraid to ask."

"Lucas knows you're in the hospital," Brooke said quickly. "Now before you get mad at me, he had a right to know."

"Why?"

"Because maybe it would shock him enough to get his head out of his ass."

Peyton sniggered. "Did it?"

"I don't know. He's terrified. I can tell you that. He sounded so scared on the phone. I had promise him some pretty outrageous things to keep him from hopping on a plane to get here."

That surprised the blonde. "He wanted to come?"

"Yeah. Pretty badly."

That made her happy. And it made her angry that it made her happy.

"I bet his girlfriend wouldn't have like that."

Brooke's eyes widened. "Speaking of her… I hate her. I'm firmly on Team Peyton, now."

"Weren't you before?"

"Yeah, but now I'm invested," she explained matter-of-factly.

"Good to know." Peyton took Brooke's hand. "I can't thank you enough for this, Brooke. I really needed you."

"I know, P. Sawyer." Brooke squeezed her best friend's hand. "I hate to do this to you, but I promised that I would call our friends with an update as soon as I saw you."

Peyton nodded. "I understand. You have to go outside though. They have all these wacky 'no cell phone' rules here."

Brooke hated leaving Peyton by herself. Something that Peyton didn't fail to notice.

"Go on, B. Davis. I'll be fine by myself for a few minutes. Just tell everybody that I'm doing all right and that I love and miss them all, okay?"

"Okay, but do go anywhere. And don't faint."

"Wasn't planning on it."

-------------

Lucas was sitting in Nathan and Haley's living room. After an intense argument between the two of them, Lindsey had opted to stay behind. She couldn't understand why he cared that Peyton was in the hospital. Peyton was his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey argued. He shouldn't been so concerned. But he was concerned. He was afraid that he was going to lose Peyton.

Nathan put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to get myself a glass of water. Do you want anything, Luke?"

His older brother shook his head. All he wanted was to know that his Peyton was fine.

"What about you, Hales?" His wife gave him a grateful smile and shook her head. Nathan stood and headed towards the kitchen. When the raven-haired Scott brother had left the room, Haley cleared her throat. Lucas didn't even look up. "Lucas."

"What?"

"I know what happened with Peyton."

Lucas was in no mood for Haley's lecturing. "So what? Does it matter right now? For all we know, she could be dying or something."

Haley could feel his pain and his concern radiating off of him. But that didn't mean that she was going to let him off easy. "Lucas, how could you do that? How could you make love to Peyton and then come back to Lindsey and pretend it never happened?"

"Don't," he warned. "I know I fucked up, okay. I know. And if I get a chance to fix this, I will. But right now… What if she's not okay, Hales?"

"I don't know."

Just then Nathan came back into the living room and there was silence. Until Nathan and Haley's phone rang. Despite being a guest in their house, Lucas was the one to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Huh… weird. I thought I called Haley," Brooke said, confused.

"You did, I just answered the phone." Lucas took a deep breath. "So, how is she?"

"She looks fine. Too skinny, but otherwise okay."

Lucas let out a sigh of relief. To his brother and sister-in-law, he said, "Brooke says that Peyton looks fine."

The young couple embraced, feeling the tension they had both been holding being released slowly.

"So, she's all right?" Lucas asked, suddenly realizing that Brooke had only mentioned Peyton's outward appearance.

"They ran some test and she hasn't gotten the results back," Brooke replied honestly. "But Peyton says she feels fine."

"Can I talk to her?"

"No."

"Please, Brooke?"

"They don't allow cell phones where she is. When she gets released from the hospital, I'll let her know that you want to talk to her."

That seemed fair. "Thanks."

"So, I should be getting back to her. I don't like leaving her alone." The brunette had fulfilled her promise and now wanted to be by her friend's side. "Tell Nathan and Haley that Peyton said that she loves and misses them."

"Oh, okay."

"I'll call them later. Bye."

Lucas hung up the phone. "They still don't know what's wrong with her. Peyton says she's fine, so that's good news. Brooke's gone back to be with her now, but she's gonna call back later."

Nathan pulled his wife closer to him as he asked his elder brother, "Anything else?"

"Yeah, Peyton says she loves you guys and misses you."

--------

Peyton was waiting for the reappearance of her best friend, so she was surprised when the curtain opened and Dr. Blake stepped in.

She sat up straight and hoped that Brooke would hurry back. If he was going to give her bad news, she wanted her best friend with her.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Like a pin cushion."

He laughed easily. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't nothing wrong with you."

"That's good, I guess."

Just then, Brooke came through the curtain. She stopped short when she noticed the handsome new addition to the room. "Hi, Brooke Davis. World famous fashion designer."

"Dr. Erik Blake. Relatively unknown doctor."

Brooke raised her eyebrows at Peyton and made her way to sit beside her.

"I'm sorry, I was just speaking to Miss Sawyer here-"

Peyton interrupted the doctor. "Please, let her stay? She is the closest thing to a family that I have and she came all the way from New York and-"

Dr. Blake returned the favor by interrupting her. "If you would like her to stay, then she can."

"Good." Peyton turned to Brooke. "You. Stay."

"Anyway, the good news is that the tests show that there's nothing wrong with you."

"Really?" Peyton was surprised. With her luck, she expected had expected to have had some sort of rare incurable disease. "Then why did I pass out?"

"Honestly? I think it was a combination of factors. Stress, dehydration, lack of sleep…" he trailed off. "When I said that there was nothing wrong with you, I didn't mean to say that the results didn't say anything."

"What does that mean?" Peyton was scared again and Brooke took her hand in hers.

"What that means is that the test results show that you're pregnant."

Peyton was sure that she must have misunderstood. "Excuse me, I'm what?"