Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers. ~Leigh Hunt~

Chapter 4

"Luke ? What are you talking about ?" Nathan asked as he looked at Lucas looking at the ceiling, while Nathan himself still kept pressure on Jake's wound.

"The ceiling, They're made out of carton or something like that, I can push one of the tiles up and we can get through that way." Lucas explained, basking in the brilliantness of his idea before being brought back to the seriousness of the situation by Nathan.

"Okay, then you go and take Jake and Shelley and I'll go look for Haley and the others." Nathan said, he didn't want to leave, he wanted to find Haley and hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be fine.

"I can't carry them both alone Nate, I need you. Look, I wanna find them as much as you do, but right now our priority has to be Jake and Shelley, they're in need of our help. Without us they'll die, you know that, they know that. It's hard, but we have to do the right thing." Lucas said, more to himself than to Nathan. Because more than anything he wanted to find Brooke, more then he wanted to find Peyton or Haley or any of his friends.

He didn't simply want to find her, he needed to find her. He didn't want to know if she was okay, he needed to know. He needed her more than anything right now. What did that mean ?

Nathan seemed very conflicted about what to do, stay with Luke or leave to find Haley. But he knew he had to stay and help, it was the right thing, the selfless thing to do. He nodded and began reached up and pushed one of the tiles up, it worked.

-X-X-

Haley, Brooke and Peyton sat and waited, Peyton held pressure on Brooke's wound to stop the bleeding, it seemed to work.

Brooke was sweating, she looked pale and her breathing was heavier than normal, but she didn't nearly look as terrible as Haley.

Haley was so pale, paler than death itself, it seemed. Her breathing was rapid and heavy. Sweat was dripping of her face and she herself seemed to have trouble staying awake. She wasn't even the one that was wounded, yet she looked like she could drop dead at any second.

Peyton was so caught up in taking care of Brooke, she didn't even notice. But Brooke did, even though she was hurting very much and had trouble to focus, she noticed the fact that Haley looked worse than she.

"Hales… are you okay ?" Brooke asked, speaking took much of her energy, but someone needed to ask.

"I… I'm… fine…r…really." Haley's ability to speak was even less than Brooke's. Peyton noticed it now too, she told Brooke to place her hand on her arm, where Peyton had been holding pressure for the past few minutes.

"What's wrong Haley ? You were fine just minutes ago." Peyton asked as she got closer to Haley and held her hand against her forehead, Peyton seemed even more worried now.

"You're burning up. You're in worse a condition than Brooke, where are you hurt ?" Peyton asked, she knew Haley must have been hurt somewhere, or she wouldn't be in such a bad shape. Maybe she had been hurt for a long while, but hadn't really felt it do to adrenaline.

"My… my side." Haley said as she turned her left side and revealed a bloody wound. There didn't seem to be an exit wound or much blood even, but it had to be bad to put her in such a bad state.

"Oh, god, Haley. When did this happen ? Why didn't you tell me or Brooke ?" Peyton asked as she searched around for something to hold against the wound, she didn't know much, but she knew if someone had a wound, even if they weren't losing much blood, you had to put pressure to it.

"When…w…we found…Br…Brooke. I…didn't really…f…feel it…t…till now. It's…b…bad, right ?" Haley asked, she vowed to herself not to cry, to be strong.

"Oh, god, Hales. I'm gonna get us out of here, as soon as possible. Now I'm going to check on Brooke for a second then I'm coming back to you." Peyton said, as she was about to turn around, Haley grabbed her arm.

"I…I'm pre…pregnant. F…five w…weeks. P…Peyton…the…the baby…" Haley said as a tear now fell down her cheek, her greatest fear was losing this baby. No one except now Peyton and Brooke knew about the baby, not even Nathan. But she was planning on keeping it, she didn't want to loose it.

"Euh… I… Just hold on, okay ? For you and your baby." Peyton said, she knew she should have said something more comforting, but she had no idea what to say to the fact that Haley was shot and pregnant. She turned to Brooke, who was holding in there too. Her wound wasn't in such a bad place as Haley's, but she was loosing a lot of blood, which made it worse, off course.

"How are you holding on ?" Peyton asked as she checked on Brooke's wound, she was loosing less blood then before, but still too much.

"Hanging…in…there. Poor…Haley…" Brooke said, Peyton didn't like the sound of Brooke calling Haley Haley, she usually called Haley tutor-girl, only when things were bad she called Haley by her name, like now.

"Yeah. So, I'm going to go back to Haley, if you need me, just call my name, okay. I'm like 1 feet away, so I'll definitely hear you, even if it's just a whisper." Peyton said as she turned around again to Haley.

She was so lost in this situation, Brooke hurt, Haley hurt, and there she was, Peyton Sawyer, the drama queen, trying to comfort two of the strongest people she had ever met. It was all wrong, this wasn't supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to sit in a closet with her best friend and one of her best friends, hoping they wouldn't die. It was just all wrong…

-X-X-

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded. ~W. Somerset Maugham~

TO BE CONTINUED