Nathan woke up early Sunday morning smiling as he felt Brooke's arms tighten around his waist. He kissed the top of her head and slipped out of bed sliding a pillow in his place before going downstairs to make breakfast. It had become their normal Sunday morning thing, he would get up make her breakfast and then they would conquer their homework, sometimes it felt like they were married. It had been about a week since the whole Felix thing and Nathan, who thought Brooke was completely and utterly wasted when it happened, learned that she wasn't as drunk as perceived; she remembered almost every detail of what happened even the part when she moved away from Nathan which she says "was stupid since I know you would never do nothing like that." Since the whole "incident" as they were calling it they had become even closer and taken their friendship to a bigger level, not to the dating level but they were taking their time in getting there.

Nathan moved about her kitchen lightly humming "Heels Over Head" in his head when Brooke finally made her way down the stairs. She stopped cold in her tracks a small smile gracing her face; she walked in and sat on the counter a few feet away from where Nathan was working. He turned and smiled at Brooke setting a fresh cup of coffee in her lap before going back to her breakfast. It was not unusual for Luke or Haley to come over on a weekend afternoon or a weekday night for that matter and find Brooke and Nathan together, it was no surprise to the couple that Brooke and Nathan had become the best of friends only telling the other things that they couldn't tell anything else. Brooke knew more about Nathan then she thinks Luke, Deb, and his Uncle Cooper knew put together. Nathan knew more about Brooke then Peyton and Haley combined times 2. Nathan set Brooke's plate on the table across from his and the two sat down acting as if they had been married for years.

Moments after they had finished breakfast Haley and Luke walked into Brooke's house smiling at Brooke as she walked down the stairs with her hair wrapped in a towel. Luke was about to ask where Nathan was when he saw Nathan cleaning up after breakfast which shocked Luke to the point of being speechless. Nathan turned around and laughed at his brother's fallen mouth. "Cat got your tongue?" He joked throwing his sponge into the sink and walking towards his backpack.

"Since when does Nathan actually clean up voluntarily?" Haley asked shocked as well because from what Haley knew of Nathan he wasn't the cleanest person she knew.

"Are you kidding me? He cleans more than I do." Brooke replied sitting at the table setting her school bag on the table as she went to refill her coffee cup. Now it was Haley's turn to be shocked, Brooke was probably the cleanest person she knew and to know that Nathan might just clean more than she did literally sent Haley's head spinning. "Wow you guys need to spend more time with us." Brooke joked making her and Nathan laugh at their friends.

"Wow now that I've had my shocker for the day let's get down to work." Luke suggested pulling out his math homework both he and Brooke looking at Nathan and Haley who shared a smile and the two began to help them out. As the four friends got to work no one seemed to mention or bring up what had happened the week before where Nathan almost risked everything he had worked so hard for just to defend Brooke, a girl that everyone at school thought meant nothing to Nathan.

MONDAY AFTER THE PARTY



It was the Monday after the party and Nathan was walking out of his first period class and stopped dead in his tracks. Felix was leaning up against the locker next to Brooke's trying to talk to her, he clenched his fists a couple of times before walking over to her locker stopping and lightly touched her arm. Brooke turned and sighed in relief when she saw Nathan's hand resting on her forearm. "Hey Haley told me she wanted to talk to you about something." Brooke searched Nathan's eyes knowing that if Haley really had needed to talk to her she would have told her in their creative writing class but knowing that Nathan was just trying to help she grabbed her books and nodded her head completely ignoring Felix as she walked away. As soon as Brooke was far away enough Nathan slammed his books down and grabbed Felix by his shirt collar pushing him harder against the locker.

"Stay the fuck away from her." He hissed his face millimeters away from Felix's.

"She's a big girl she can make up her own mind; she doesn't need you or want you around." Nathan removed one of his hands from Felix's collar slamming his fist into Felix's face wiping the smug smirk off of his face.

"You don't know a damn thing about Brooke and if I see you talking to her or even looking at her I will hunt you down and rip you apart with my bare hands, got it?" Nathan asked emphasizing his point by punching Felix in the face again making the back of his head smack against the locker. Felix just smirked and pushed Nathan away getting ready for a fight. Felix punched Nathan in the face blood squirting from his mouth as he head flew to the side from the force of Felix's fist. Nathan shook his head feeling a dull headache coming on and punched him in the stomach making him double over in pain. Nathan took this opportunity to keep punching him in the stomach.

Luke was walking down the hallway when he saw a big group of students standing in the hallway, curious as to what was going on Luke pushed his way through the crowd and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Nathan beating the hell out of Felix. Luke got a glimpse of the look in Nathan's eye and immediately flew into action breaking through the few students in front of him and hurling his body towards Nathan's wrapping his arms around Nathan's waist to avoid the punches being thrown and succeeded in pulling him away from Felix. "Nathan!" Luke yelled trying to get through to his brother who was fighting against him to get back to Felix, who was being looked after by another student. Nathan looked at Luke his hard death glare instantly softening as his chest began to rapidly rise and fall. "Come on let's get you out of here." Luke pushed Nathan down the hall away from Felix as Luke turned and picked up his books stopping in front of Felix. "Stay the hell away from Nathan and Brooke because next time I won't stop him." Felix just looked at him as the blood ran from his nose, watching as Luke walked away slightly pushing Nathan down the hall.

Brooke was sitting in class when Nathan walked in looking a little worse for wear and sat down next to Brooke. "What happened?"

"You should see the other guy." He muttered making Brooke laugh a little but didn't deter her from finding out what happened. Nathan sighed knowing that there was no way that he could avoid telling her what had happened but he was scared that she would get mad at him. "I told Felix to leave you alone and he had some stuff that made me angry so I hit him."

"What did he say?" She asked thinking it was something about her.

Nathan sighed again and turned towards her deciding that he just had to tell her. "He said that you didn't want me around." He softly told her hating the fact that he felt like such a girl.

"Nathan if I didn't want you around me, I would tell you." Nathan went to answer her when Principal Turner walked into the room motioning for Nathan to follow him. Nathan looked at Brooke who nodded in encouragement as if silently telling him that she would go up to bat for him. He grabbed his books following Turner out of the room and down to his office.

Principal Turned shut the door behind him and Nathan motioning for Nathan to sit down a serious look on his face before he could open his mouth Nathan was explaining what had happened. "I know I screwed up, I know that I shouldn't have done it, but as lame as it might sound I had a reason for doing it."

"And your reason being?"

Nathan took a deep breath knowing that he had to tell the truth because there was no way that Turner was going to let him out of his one by saying the bare minimum. "He tried to rape my best friend at a party this weekend and I just told him after I saw him talking to her this morning to stay away from her and he in a sense provoked it. I know that I shouldn't have hit him but I wasn't thinking about anything else but my best friend."

"Nathan you can't take these things into your own hands. You have to let other people that are more qualified handle it."

"In a calm state of mind I know that but I can only take so much before I snap and messing with someone I care about pushes me over the edge. So, on that note I will take any punishment you have to give me because I know that I screwed up."

"Well Nathan I am going to have to suspend your for three days and from one game." Nathan nodded and stood up making his way towards the door before turning around.

"Can I tell Brooke and Luke?" Turner thought about it for a moment before nodding his head.

"As long as you're out of the building before class ends." Nathan yet again nodded and left the room stopping at his locker before going back to class. He stopped at Luke's class first smiling at the teacher as he asked to talk to Luke for a moment because he had to make the most of Turner's rare niceness towards Nathan.

"What's up? Why aren't you in class?"

"I've been suspended for three days and can't play in Friday's game."

"That's ridiculous." Luke replied confused as to Nathan's calm demeanor about the whole ordeal.

"I actually got off pretty easy since I took responsibility so I'll talk to you later."

"Have you told Brooke?"

"I'm on my way now." Luke nodded and walked back into class still reeling from Nathan being so calm. Nathan took a deep breath before opening the door to his math class and asking to talk to Brooke. Brooke followed Nathan out of the room standing in front of him as he leaned against the wall.

"What happened?"

"I got suspended till Wednesday and can't play in Friday's game."

"I'm so sorry."

"I'm actually okay with it because I know I got off easy."

"How?"

"I took responsibility saying that I knew it wasn't right but I had no other choice and I guess he seemed to go with it so I'm sorry that I can't be here for you but you have Luke and Haley and my phone's always on."

"I'll see you after school right?" She asked not knowing what she would do if she couldn't see him.

"Hopefully but I don't know how my parents are going to react to this." Brooke nodded and hugged him before going back into class leaving Nathan to sigh and lean his head back against the wall. Nathan had one more stop to make on his way out of the building and he was not looking forward to talking to Whitey, he knew that he was going to get mad at Nathan for not being able to play in Friday's game and Nathan almost turned around but Whitey opening the door about to walk out made Nathan have to face the music.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Whitey nodded and walked back into his office motioning for Nathan to sit down.

"What's up?"

"I can't play in Friday's game."

"Why?" Whitey asked leaning forward in his chair.

"I got into a fight and Turner suspended me until Wednesday and benched me for the game."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"I was defending my best friend and I know that it was wrong but I have to protect those I care about." Whitey nodded knowing immediately who Nathan was talking about.

"Alright well I'll talk to Turner and see if I can get him to just suspend you from school not the game and see if you can still be allowed to come to practice and I'll have Lucas let you know what happens." Nathan stood up after looking at the clock and realizing that he had to leave.

"Thanks Whitey." Whitey just nodded and stood up following Nathan out of his office and walking off towards Turner's office and as Nathan drove away from school he had a pretty good feeling that he would be playing in Friday's game.

Brooke walked into her house after practice a feeling of dread washing over her with her already growing feeling of guilt. She looked at her phone for the fourth time since she got the text message almost ten minutes ago. Hey-I'm grounded till I'm off suspension, so I'll c you on Thursday :(, Nate. Brooke sighed falling back onto the couch her phone falling to the ground. What was she going to do without Nathan around? She had grown so used to having him around and now she wouldn't see him for 3 days and it was all her fault. She closed her eyes and drifted off into a restless sleep a frown fixated on her face.

Nathan was sitting in his room struggling to do his English homework cursing his parents out in his head for overreacting. He hadn't been grounded since his freshman year and it was his dad that shocked him the most, Nathan could've understood his dad being hard on him if he was still not able to play in Friday's game but Whitey had talked Principal Turner into finding another way to punish Nathan in lieu of taking him out of the game. So Luke called Nathan and told him that he was indeed playing in the game but had to keep his grades at a steady B average and cannot do anything but be a model student and the next time Nathan got into trouble Principal Turner would take him out of 8 games. Nathan was grateful but right now even being suspended sucked. His dad had come down on him very hard given him a 2 hour lecture when he got home while his mom just sat there. He wondered what was going to happen since his dad was going out of town till that Friday because his mom was always so absorbed in work that Nathan almost thought for a moment that he could get away with anything when his mom told him after his dad left for his trip that she was going to stand by his dad's decision. The worst part of all of it had to be telling Brooke that he was grounded and couldn't see her which was killing him and it's only been what almost 12 hours? The clock next to his bed read close to midnight and as he rubbed his tired eyes he wondered how he was going to sleep that night since he had grown accustomed to having Brooke lying next to him. Sighing he shut his notebook and pushed away from his desk ready to hopefully just collapse in his bed when his phone began to vibrate on the desk. Picking it up he smiled when he saw Brooke's name flashing on the screen.

"Hey." Brooke instantly felt better when she heard Nathan's voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hi." She shyly replied unsure of the real reason behind her calling him.

"What's wrong?" He asked picking up on the depressed tone in her voice.

"I feel horrible; all of this is my fault." She whispered tears welling up in her eyes. Nathan sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"You didn't do anything wrong, I could've stopped and walked away but I didn't, it's my fault."

"But you were defending me!" She exclaimed hitting the table in front of her out of frustration. Nathan ran a hand through his hair closing his eyes trying to come up with a way to calm her down. "And now you're grounded while being suspended."

"Hold on." She went to question him when she heard him putting the phone down and walk out of the room. She looked around her kitchen trying to make out the cabinets in the dark while she waited for him to come back. Minutes later, what felt like forever to Brooke, she heard Nathan pick the phone up. "I'm coming over."

"Nathan you're grounded, you can't, I won't let you."

"I talked to my mom and told her either she let me or I was going to go against her and do it anyway and she said it was fine." Brooke sighed not wanting to get Nathan in even more trouble.

"I've already gotten you into enough trouble."

"Either let me in or I'll break in." Brooke laughed knowing that he would break into her house so she sighed again and agreed.

"Let me know when you get here." Brooke hung up the phone and moved towards the stairs sitting on them as she waited for Nathan to come over.

Nathan drove over to Brooke's his mom's words playing over in his head, "She must be a special girl if you're willing to risk even worse punishment to see her and if she is indeed special don't let her go." Nathan smiled and knew the moment that Brooke opened the door that he had fallen in love with the girl standing in front of him.

That Friday night as Brooke walked into the locker room to change after the game and as she walked up to her locker she saw a white envelope sticking out of it attached to a CD. She set her pom-poms on the ground and pulled it out.

Brooke-

I wish that I could tell you how I feel about you exactly but no words that I could write could describe it so I'll leave it to the professionals.

-Your Secret Admirer

Brooke quickly got changed and walked out to her car with Nathan, Haley, and Luke who were going to join her at her house for a movie night, she quickly got in and put the CD into the player not noticing the looks that her three companions were sharing. She started the car and waited for a moment before pulling out of the parking lot.

I have been blind, unwilling to see
The true love you're giving.
I have ignored every blessing.
I'm on my knees confessing

That I feel myself surrender
Each time I see your face.
I am captured by your beauty,
Your unassuming grace.
And I feel my heart is turning,
Falling into place.
I can't hide it
Now hear my confession.

I have been wrong about you.
Thought I was strong without you.
For so long nothing could move me.
For so long nothing could change me.
Now I feel myself surrender
Each time I see your face.
I am captured by your beauty,
Your unassuming grace.
And I feel my heart is turning,
Falling into place.
I can't hide it
Now hear my confession.

You are the air that I breathe.
You're the ground beneath my feet.
When did I stop believing?

Cause I feel myself surrender
Each time I see your face.
I am captured by your beauty,
Your unassuming grace.
And I feel my heart
Falling into place.
I can't hide it
Now hear my confession.
I can't hide it
Now hear my confession.

Brooke looked at her radio as she pulled into her driveway the tears falling from her eyes. The song was absolutely beautiful and she looked over at Nathan as he smiled at her not giving her any indication of if he was the one that had given her the song but her heart was screaming at her that it was Nathan and that was good enough for her. Yep it was official now Brooke Davis was wholeheartedly in love with Nathan Scott and it was more than just a crush now.

SUNDAY AFTER THE GAME

Nathan shook his head bringing himself out of his trip down memory lane and back to the task at hand which was his English homework. The drama of Felix was behind them, hopefully, and now Nathan could focus solely on the attention of the girl sitting beside him that had stolen his heart the moment that she had let him completely in showing him the real Brooke Davis. Brooke looked up and smiled at him before going back to her homework. Yep it was official now Nathan Scott was in love with Brooke Davis and it was only a matter of time before she became his girlfriend, he just had to find the perfect way to ask her.

A/N: Nathan is finally in love with Brooke! But how long until they become a couple? How's he going to ask her? Or is something going to deter them from finally becoming a couple? Stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The song used in this chapter is "My Confession" by Josh Groban.