A Painfull Awakening

'It's dark here. I don't like this. I'm so scared. I don't know what to do. How can I escape this darkness ? ... Wake up. I need to wake up. I need to open my eyes. Opening my eyes will make it better again.'

Slowly, Brooke opens her eyes again, as much as she can. She knows what she needs to do, but it will be very hard, it will hurt. But if she doesn't do it, she'll die.

She tries to get up, but when that doesn't work, she crawls to the living room. She doesn't need to turn on the lights, she knows exactly where the phone is. That's one of the advantages of living practicly alone and doing most of the decorating herself.

The phone is one the small coffée table, she slowly reaches her hand, all though it hurts like hell she just wants to sleep. But she hangs in there, and dials the first number that comes to mind.

"Hello ?" the tired male voice answers on the other side of the phone.

Brooke gatters all her strength to try and speak.

"Lucas... Help... Me..." Brooke says, barely understandable, but she hopes Lucas can hear her.

"Brooke ? Is that you ? You sound awfull. Where are you ?" Lucas asks, suddenly, he sounds wide awake and very concerned.

"Home... a... attacked..." Brooke manages to say before passing out again, the phone still in her hand, Lucas still on the other side of the line.

"Brooke ? Brooke ?! Are you there ? Brooke ?! Hold On! I'll be right there!" Lucas shouts through the phone.

'I'm in the dark again. I can't be here. I need to hold on. I have to much to live for. I need to tell Lucas how I feel. I can't die without having been with him. I need to open my eyes. Come on Brooke, you can do it. Just open my eyes...'

Again, Brooke slowly opens her eyes, trying to hold on with every breath she has.

"Brooke ?! Brooke ?! Where are you ?!" Brooke hears a voice, it sounds from so so far, as if it's coming from her own mind, wanting to be rescued by someone.

But the sound isn't coming from her mind, it's real and very close to her. Lucas rushes into the room and turns on the light, trying to find Brooke, the girl he's loved for so long, but has always been so afraid to admit it.

The sight he sees, shocks him more then anything has ever done in his entire life. A beaten up and appearantly stabbed or shot Brooke is lying on the floor, eyes half open, clearly trying to hold on to whatever breath she still has.

"OMG... Brooke..." Lucas whispers. Without even thinking about it, Lucas lifts her up, and gently walks her to his car, carefully laying her down in the back. He then rushed over to the drives seat and rushes to the hospital as fast as he can.

Once there, he hits the breaks as fast as he can. He jumps out of his seat, again, gently lifts Brooke up, who still has her eyes half open, trying to hold on. He quickly walks into the hospital, trying not to hurt her any more then she already has been hurt.

"Help! I need a doctor! She's been attacked!" Lucas yells to no one in particular, hoping someone will help him.

Emmediately several doctors and nurses come rushing at him and place Brooke on a bed.

"What happened ?" A middle-aged female doctor asks Lucas.

"Euh, euh, I don't know, she euh... she called me, said she'd been attacked. I found her like this in her home. Please, please help her." Lucas pleads to the female doctor. She nods and takes Brooke away, leaving Lucas just standing there, figuring out what to do next.

Lucas walks around the waiting room for about half an hour before he realizes he needs to call Peyton, Haley, Nathan and Mouth. He decides to start with Peyton, since she is Brooke's friend and his now ex-girlfriend.

Peyton Sawyer is lying in her bed, peacefully sleeping. She's dreaming about her and Brooke celebrating 17th birthday, that occured 3 months ago... When suddenly she abruptly awakes by a ringing tone, her cell phone.

"Hello ?" Peyton asks, still half asleep.

"Peyton ? It's me, Lucas." Lucas says, while trying to figure out what to say.

"Luke ? Why are you calling me ? It's like 4 in the morning. We're not getting back together if that's what you want. We both agreed that would be a bad idea." Peyton says, thinking that must be the reason Lucas would call her this late.

"No, I don't wanna get back together. It's... it's about Brooke, Peyton." Lucas says, still unsure about what to say.

"Brooke ? What about her ?" Peyton asks, now getting a little concerned because Lucas is being so cryptic.

"She's in the hospital, Peyton. She's been attacked. You should come, I don't know how bad it is." Lucas says without giving her any specific details.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes." Peyton says and hangs up the phone.

"OMG." she says to herself, before jumping out of bed to get dressed.

Lucas makes two more phone calls after that, one to Haley and Nathan and one to Mouth. They're all on their way. Lucas would call her mother or father, but he has no idea where they are or how to reach them. Now that he thinks of it, Lucas doesn't know much about Brooke's parents or Brooke in generall. He hopes he can have a chance to do that.

He waits for about 15 minutes before someone finally arrives. It's Peyton, she's rushing into the hospital to the waiting room, where Lucas is standing.

"Luke, where is she ? Is she alright ?" Peyton asks as soon as she reaches him. It looked like she had been crying on her way over here.

"She's in surgery. She's badly beaten and, god, she's been stabbed." Lucas informs Peyton.

She can't believe what she just heard, her best friend, stabbed. She can't loose Brooke, she's all she has. Peyton stumbled to a chair and sits down, her hands before her face, she's crying. Lucas doesn't really know what to do, he's not her boyfriend anymore, should he comfort her ? But he is her friend, and friends help each other through the rough times.

He sits down besides her and takes her in his arms, where she cries even more. He has no idea what to say, he could tell her everything will be fine, but he won't, he's not sure everything will be fine.

Not too long after that, Mouth arrives and eventually Haley and Nathan arrive too. Time and time again, Lucas explains what happened. Mouth appears to be in shock, he doesn't know what to say, while Haley follows Peyton's lead and cries in Nathan arms.

Lucas is trying so hard to be the brave one in this situation, but it's so difficult, since all he wants to do is cry. He's the only one who knows how badly she has been hurt, he's the only one who has seen her.

As they are all waiting for the doctor to come out, the pollice arrives and asks for the one who brought Brooke in. Lucas informs them it was him and is taken to a private room for questioning.

"How did you find miss. Davis ?" they ask him, Lucas is getting the feeling that they think he has something to do with the attack, but he stays calm and explains what happened, yet again.

"She called me, between 2.30 am and 3.00 am. She sounded really bad on the phone and was asking for help, so I rushed over to her house and found her on the floor." Lucas explains, hoping they will believe him.

"We'll have to take your phone, to verify your story." The officer that seems the most friendly says, Lucas nods, takes out his phone and hands it over to the officer.

"You will find who did this to her, won't you ?" Lucas asks as they are getting ready to leave.

"We'll try." The other pollice officer now says before leaving the room with his partner. Lucas sighs and returns to the waiting room, rejoining the other. They ask him what that was all about and he tells them it was just part of the investigation because he brought Brooke in.

All they do now is sit in sillence, waiting for a doctor to come out. Hopefully to tell them that Brooke would be completely fine. After hours of waiting, the female doctor that took Brooke, comes to the waiting room.

She walks up to Lucas and the rest of the group.

"Is anyone here related to Miss. Davis ?" She asks, so she would know who to adress.

"No, she has no relatives living here. We don't know where her parents are. But we are her family. How is she ?" Peyton says, hoping the doctor would find it in her heart to tell them, even if they're not her actual family. The doctor sighs, but then speaks.

"She's been badly beaten, but the bruises will heal. She was also stabbed, but luckily, it punctured no organs. Your friend will make a full recovery, she was very lucky." The doctor says, giving everyone a friendly smile. Haley steps forward, with a dark look on her face.

"Was she... was she raped ?" Haley asks, she knows someone needs to ask. It's awfull to think something like that, but they need to know.

"We did a rape kit and found no indication of sexual intercorse, so no, she was not raped." The doctor answers Haley's question. Everyone sighs in relief, Haley hugs Nathan and Peyton hugs Mouth. But Lucas is still very concerned about Brooke.

"Will, will she be fine, mentally ?" Lucas asks, knowing that surviving this is only the first step. Something like this can affect a person in more way then just physically.

"She has no brain damage, but, she will need a lot of help getting through this. This experience will have most likely changed her." The doctor says.

"Can someone stay with her tonight ?" Lucas now asks, he feels very responsible over Brooke now, since he had brought her in and off course, his feelings towards her that are more then just friendship.

"Yes, but only one. I advise that the rest of you go home." She replies.

Lucas looks at Peyton with a very begging look in his eyes, she understand and nods. He can stay with her.

"Can you take me to her ?" Lucas asks, the doctor nods and she and Lucas walk away, heading to the ICU, since she has to stay there untill they're sure that she won't suffor any internal bleeding. The rest of the gang say goodbye and head home.

Lucas walks up to Brooke bed, sits down besides her and just stares at her usually so beautifull face which is now completely swollen and beaten up.

He reaches out for her hand and takes a hold of it, with both his hands. Her arms are so bruises and on some spots, covered with dried up blood.

"Hey pretty girl. I know you probably can't hear me, but talking to you makes me feel better, so don't laugh okay ?" Lucas says, half and half hoping that she'd open her eyes now and start laughing at him for being such a nerd. But she doesn't open her eyes.

"So, I've been thinking about why you called me and not Peyton or Haley. We've never actually been so close and I know that's partially my fault. I was always scared of getting close to you, because I feared I would tell you how I really feel about you and that you'd hate me for it. But I can't stay quiet anymore, Brooke. I... I love you, I guess I always have, but the fear that I might loose you made me realize it. So, now you need to wake up, for me. I couldn't stand it if I lost you, so, open your eyes pretty girl." Lucas says, watching Brooke, hoping from the bottom of his heart that she'd open her eyes.

But again, she doesn't open her eyes. Lucas can't stand seeing her like this anymore and his tears finally start flooding across his face.

About 5 hours later, almost noon, Lucas has fallen asleep, his head laying down on the bed, his hands still holding Brooke's hand. He cried for hours, hoping she'd wake up soon, untill he finally fell asleep.

' I'm here again, in the dark. This place scares me more than anything, but I'm afraid of what I might find if I open my eyes. I don't know if it's safe. Will it hurt ? But I have no choice, I can't stay here, I need to open my eyes. I need to go back'

As her eyes open, she struggles to adjust to the light of the room. She blinks several times untill her eyes are comfortable.

She feels something warm on her hand, so she looks at it, only to see that someone is holding it in his hands. It's Lucas, he sitting besides her, but has fallen asleep. She looks at the clock infront of her, it's 11.12 am. Her throat is very soar, but she tries to speak.

"Lu...hmm...Lucas." she whispers, not being able to make more sound. But it's enough, Lucas raises his head to see Brooke has awoken. He smiles and kisses her forhead.

"Hey pretty girl, you had me worried there for a second." Lucas says as he places one hand on her forhead and rubs it through her hair. She just smiles.

"Peyton." Brooke says, she knows it would be to hard to say whole sentences yet.

"She knows, she was so scared for you, she'll be glad to hear you're awake. I'll go call her right now." Lucas says, with that he kisses her hand and walks away.

She knows Peyton will ask her how she's doing, and if she would tell her or anyone the truth, they would be even more worried. So as far as everyone is concerned, she is still the same old brooke, only with some bruises and probably a scar now too. She could never tell anyone what she's really feeling, how all she wants, is to go back to the dark. How she wishes she would be dead right now, she could never tell, ever.

TO BE CONTINUED