Authors note: Thanks for the rewievs so far! It's nice to see that i'm not the only brucas-fan nowadays...

Just one little thing before ch.3; I know that my grammar, spelling and choise of words is sometimes a bit off. This is because I'm swedish and english is not my first language. I hope you guys can overlook it. Should it be any unclaritys, just ask. :)

CHAPTER 3 – Beautifully Broken

Even though she's been suspecting it for weeks, Rachel is chocked. Some part of her really expected her intuition to have been wrong. Especially after the last couple of days, with Haley confessing to being the one that the rumors concerned, and Brooke being so convincing.

Before this morning, when she'd held Brooke's hair while she was throwing up, she had almost told her self she'd been wrong. And even after that little restroom-incident she was starting to think that she was going to have to apologize for jumping to conclusions. That maybe Brooke just had stomach-bug. But now she knows for sure. Without a doubt.

She watches Brooke who's staring out into space and she shakes her head unbelievingly.

"You're fucked Brooke… This is soo messed up…"

"Ha! You're a smart one redhead! You don't think I know that?!"

Brooke turns towards her and shoots off a fake smile, drying of the last tears with the back of her hand. Her face is back to her normal cocky self and no longer so young and innocent-looking.

"I bet you're dying to say 'I told you so' so go ahead, now's your chance" she says.

Rachel actually feels a bit guilty. She had told Brooke the other day that she was going to become a terrible mom. And it feels much too harsh now. She hadn't really been serious either. She was just trying to make Brooke pissed enough to tell the truth.

"Come on Brooke, I wouldn't say that…" she tries but Brooke is looking out the front window again.

"Hey, what do you say about continuing this discussion inside over food? You said you were hungry, right?"

Brooke doesn't answer but she opens the car-door and gathers her stuff so Rachel takes that as a yes.

They walk inside and she puts the food she bought at Karen's on the kitchen counter. Brooke takes out plates and forks in silence and then starts to open up the different food containers.

Rachel seats herself at the table and pulls one of the plates over to her side.

"So… I'm guessing you haven't told Luke."

"Nope."

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

Brooke sits down across the table from Rachel but keeps her eyes on the food. Rachel's eyes are seeking hers but she doesn't look up. She doesn't want any more questions. But she just keeps on going.

"Well, are you going to? I mean you guys have to talk about this, right?"

"No we don't. And you don't have to talk to me about this either… I just told you since you looked kind of freaked out about my emotional break-down in the car. But I'm fine now and I just want to eat and go to bed."

This isn't entirely true, but being all emotional and vulnerable in front of Rachel isn't easy. Crying isn't usually a thing Brooke does, not in front of whoever. Maybe a few well behaved tears in front of a guy to get what she wants, but never the whole break-down thing with red puffy eyes and uncontrollable sobbing.

In the past Peyton had been the one person Brooke could cry with. Peyton had been the one who was allowed to console her and no one else. Recently she had started to learn to trust Lucas with her tears, but as of lately she's only cried when she was alone or when Rachel was sleeping.

To cry or to be too emotional in front of people showed weakness and she couldn't afford to be weak right now.

Rachel looks a little hurt by her latest comment and Brooke sighs.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I know you mean well. It's just that you're asking me all these questions that I don't even have the answers to myself yet… As you said, this is messed up. I messed up..."

Her bottom lip starts trembling and she puts the fork down on the plate. Rachel reaches over the table and puts her hand on top of hers.

"You AND Lucas… You were two who created the mess…"

Lucas can't sleep. Still, when Peyton calls on his cell phone he pretends to be asleep and doesn't pick up. He doesn't want to talk to her tonight. She's been a little too 'hands on' lately, in a somewhat strange way, and he just wants to be alone.

The picture of Brooke outside in the car is etched onto the inside of his eyelids and every time he closes his eyes, he sees her sitting there, with her forehead wrinkled in deep creases instead of her usual happy dimpled smile.

Something is wrong with her, he's sure of it. He just has to figure out what it is. Brooke always thinks he doesn't know her well enough and he has always brushed it off, thinking that he did.

He knows her favorite ice-cream, he knows what shops she likes to visit when she's at the mall. He knows she misses her parents and that she's afraid of spiders even though she'd never ever admit it, not even to him. He knows she's strong, courageous and will-powered and that she's loyal beyond anything.

Still. Tonight he starts to think that maybe she's right. If he knew her well enough he should be able to tell what is wrong.

Brooke being sad and depressed could also be wishful thinking on his account, he thinks as he's laying in his bed, watching the ceiling. Because deep inside he's hoping that maybe she's just this down over their break-up. But it doesn't make sense and he's aware of that. If that was the case she probably wouldn't have broken up with him in the first place. And also, she wouldn't avoid him like she did.

He rolls around to free himself from the covers and sits up. There's no use trying. Sleep just doesn't want to come tonight. Again he's thinking about the rumors about her being pregnant, but Haley's confession to him the other night had taken care of that, right?

And even if Haley hadn't come to him and told him that SHE was the one being pregnant, not Brooke, he had still asked Brooke twice about it. The first time at the wedding when he found that pregnancy-test in her purse, and she had promised him she wasn't. The second time had been at the Lupe Fiasco-consert at Tric, just days ago. Peyton came and told him about the rumors and he had confronted her again.

"Is it true?"

"Uh, that didn't take long… Luke, I told you I wasn't pregnant! Alright? You think I would lie to you?"

She looked hurt. Sad.

"It wouldn't be the first time…" He felt the way she looked.

"No, the first time actually, I lied and said that I WAS pregnant. ALSO, the first time, you were sneaking around behind MY back with Peyton."

"Brooke this is my decision to!"

She was angry now and he could see it.

"Really? As though you're the only guy I ever slept with?!"

"Chris Keller…"

"Huh? You know what, don't talk to me!" She got up and left him alone at the table.

Haley said Brooke was only protecting her and that he shouldn't be mad, but it had been really hard not to. Especially with the mental pictures of his former girlfriend in bed together with that asshole.

He listens to the nightly sounds outside of his window and wonders what she doing right now. Probably sleeping, he thinks. But she could also be in a bar somewhere, partying with Rachel and flirting with someone like she used to flirt with him.

He still has the picture of them both on his nightstand and he looks at it briefly before turning out the light. He doesn't need to though. He never needed pictures of Brooke to remember how she looked. Her face is etched in his mind.

He reaches for his cell phone, a sudden urge to hear her voice, and dials the number. The signals keep sounding but she doesn't pick up.

Rachel watches her friend who is now finally asleep, tucked in beside her self in the same bed, not wanting to sleep alone. "You must be so afraid…" she whispers stroking Brooke over the cheek. And curled up into a sleeping ball, Brooke looks nothing like the coldhearted bitch that she has been portraying lately. More like the total opposite.

It's still kind of weird thinking that she and Brooke are becoming friends, being archenemies not far back. But it all seems so long ago now and she is still so thankful to Brooke for being there for her at the hospital after the car-accident and everything with Cooper.

The hospital-stay had been a real eye-opener for Rachel, seeing that Brooke and Mouth had been the only two people to come see her. And Brooke hadn't even had any reason to do so. Mouth yes, because he was her friend, but Brooke? God, she and her had hated etch other fiercely not that long ago. She's not regretting that she let Brooke move in and she smiles at the memory, remembering Brooke sitting next to her on her hospitalbed.

"I brought you back your house-keys… It's a very nice house. Big rooms, no parents… I used to have one of those."

Rachel sighs. "Keep 'em."

Brooke looks confused.

"I mean, you moved out of Peytons place, right? You might as well crash at my house. …Unless you don't want to."

Smiling first, Brooke says; "So this is what it looks like when hell freezes over?" but then she gets serious.

"Thanks Rachel… Thank you."

"When hell freezes over…" Rachel thinks. That had been such a typical Brooke-thing to say.

They had never gotten to it. Because after arriving in the driveway, but still sitting in the car, Brooke had told her the well kept secret. She had been crying first but when she calmed down she had been almost strangely held together. She told Rachel about finding out she was pregnant just hours before that backstabbing slut Peyton had told her about having feelings for Lucas, and then being forced to keep it all bottled up during the ceremony and the aftermath of the accident.

When Brooke had consoled Rachel in the hospital she had already known, still she had unselfishly been there for her. And that makes her wishing that she hadn't been so though towards Brooke lately.

Apart from others Rachel thinks she's starting to understand why Brooke had gone and broken up with Lucas. Especially after seeing him earlier at the café. He on the other hand had seemed completely oblivious as to why it had happened.

But some bits of the puzzle are still missing. One thing she still can't understand is why Brooke hadn't told Haley. Haley was even in the same situation, or maybe not quite… Haley was married and she had Nathan. And she had her family. Brooke had no one.

Brooke stirs in her sleep and Rachel pulls up the covers around her before settling in to sleep herself. And just when she's drifting of a thought grabs her.

"Brooke" she whispers, poking the brunette gently.

"Umm…"

"Have you told Mouth about you being knocked up?"

"Yea, I had to," Brooke mumbles still half in her sleep. "He was the only one thinking that I would be a good mother…"

Even though it fits in with Mouths odd behavior lately, Rachel still can't believe that he didn't tell her… Or actually, come to think of it, he had. Suddenly she realizes that he had tried talking to her about it the other night at Tric but she had been too much into the performing rapper to really listen. She had just thought that he had picked it up from the rumor she her self had spread to the 'Clean Teens'.

He must have thought she was the coldest person in the world with the answer she gave him.

"I know about Brooke… I know about her being pregnant… Rachel, what are we going to do?"

"Tell you what, you drive her to the clinic. I'll pick her up."

Mouth just looked at her strangely.

"Come on Mouth, there's no way Brooke and Lukas are ready to have a baby."

Rachel closes her eyes again trying for the third time to get to sleep. And even though she and Brooke haven't really talked about what Brooke wants to do, she is still pretty sure about her last remark. Brooke and Luke are in no way ready, not even close.
Especially not Lucas.

How about it? Was it okay?