Once their parents were gone, the 'lets gathered in the living room. Seth, Martin and Ryan sat on one couch, trying to be strong for their sisters, while inside they were just as broken as the girls were. Jessalyn, Ainsley and Marissa didn't even try to hide their tears, or their agony. They clutched to each other as they sat together on the other couch and they all cried as they thought of what might happen. None of them spoke.
When they heard the front door open, they all knew who it was. There was only one person who opened the door without knocking every time, without fail. Brooke soon entered the living room, Sophia right behind her, taking the little ones, who were half-asleep up to a guest bedroom before she returned after her mother. Sophia hesitated only slightly in the doorway, looking once at her boyfriend before she went to her best friend's side.
It wasn't that Sophia didn't want to support Seth; she just knew that Ainsley needed her more. She and Brooke both said nothing as Ainsley drew one arm away from her sisters and wrapped it around her best friend, none of them caring about the awkwardness of the hug. Brooke surveyed the scene for a moment. "Since I assume none of us are going back to sleep, I'm going to make coffee," she said before heading into the kitchen.
After Brooke made coffee, she brought everyone out a cup, brewing another pot, in case anyone wanted seconds. She sat on a chair as she sipped her coffee, and none of them had finished their first cups before there was a knock on the front door, which opened shortly after. Haley led the way into the living room, with Nathan, and James, who had yet to go back to his college, was holding the new baby Scott, with Naley's other children following behind him.
Taking the young ones to lay them down in a guest room, James returned a few moments later, and still no one had said anything. There was nothing they could say yet, and the waiting was what was killing everyone the most. Nathan and the guys went out to play basketball, while Haley and Brooke went to the kitchen to drink coffee, and the girls stayed in the living room, still not saying anything, but their somewhat loud sobs had quieted to silent tears.
In the kitchen, Haley went right to the freezer and opened it, moving stuff around until she found the bottle of alcohol that she knew Peyton always kept in there for emergency situations not unlike this one, although no one had ever expected this situation to arise. Brooke gasped when she saw Haley set it on the counter, because Haley was still breastfeeding. "I don't want to drink it. Just look at the bottle," she quickly clarified.
Nodding slowly, Brooke looked longingly at the bottle, as if wishing she could have some, as Haley poured herself a cu of coffee, and then refilled Brooke's cup. "You can have some if you want," she offered, sliding the bottle over to the other brunette. Brooke shook her head, but Haley could see the pain in her best friend's eyes. "Hey, Brooke, where is Owen?" she asked cautiously.
The pain in Brooke's eyes intensified to something beyond just what was going on, and Haley knew she had hit the nail on the head when Brooke grabbed the bottle and poured a healthy amount into her coffee, taking a couple of sips before she looked over at Haley. "I don't think it's going to last much longer," was all she said. That was all she needed to say, though, for Haley to wrap her arms around her, and they continued to talk and sip their coffee.
In the living room, Ainsley decided she could stand the silence no more. It was getting to agonizing to just wait, and do nothing. She pulled back from the group hug, and looked at her best friend. "Hey, Soph, where is your dad?" she asked, because she knew that Owen must not have been home. If he had been home, Brooke would have left the little kids with him, if he hadn't wanted to come, or, more likely, he would have just come with them.
Just from the look that twisted Sophia's face, Ainsley knew something was going on, but she waited on her best friend to speak. She rubbed Sophia's arm as she waited for her best friend to speak. "They've been fighting lately, a lot. I mean, I thought today was okay, and everything was going to get good again, but when we all got home, they fought worse than ever, and he left the house," she paused, her eyes filling with tears. "I think they might get divorced," she added.
As the tears spilled over onto her already tearstained cheeks, Ainsley pulled Sophia into a tight hug, rubbing her back. She knew that while she would comfort her best friend, Sophia would get more comfort from her brother, and she pulled back. "Hey, if I know my brother at all, he's sitting on the porch, watching the rest of the guys play their game. You should go sit with him. You need him more than you can help me," she said, pushing her friend to her feet.
Of course, Sophia was hesitant, reluctant to leave her best friend, but Ainsley could see the well-hidden need to go sit with Seth in her best friend's eyes, and she knew she was making the right choice. "Really, bestie, it's okay. I promise you. I know you need him, and there's nothing you can really do to help me right now, so I want you to go and get your comfort so you can give some to me if I do need it," she said firmly, giving Sophia a soft push away.
Knowing what a sacrifice Ainsley was making, and how weird it must be for her, because this relationship was so new, Sophia really appreciated it, and she was going to take her chance. She and Seth had pretty much always been friends, because they were around each other so much anyway, but there had been times when she had talked to him, not instead of Ainsley, but in addition to talking to Ainsley. He had always helped her.
Just like Ainsley had said, Seth was sitting on the porch, watching James, Robert and William play against Nathan, Martin and Ryan. He looked up when he heard the door open, and he offered her the ghost of a smile when he saw who it was. She stepped forward and closed the door, that smile being the only thing she needed to make her go and sit next to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.
For a while she told him of her troubles, but then she fell silent, and they both silently took comfort in the other's presence while listening to nothing but the sound of the basketball and feet on the pavement. Inside the house, Brooke and Haley fell silent around the same time, listening to nothing but the sound of the percolator every time they made a fresh pot of coffee, though Haley started drinking water after her first cup of coffee. The living room was also silent.
Not long after dawn had come and gone, the door opened again, and they all knew who it was, because there was no one else it could be. The girls stood as their sister came in, and they all hugged her as fresh tears poured down their cheeks. Haley and Brooke had heard the door open and they entered the living room as well, and they saw the twin who was possibly losing her sister right now. "Oh, Madison," was all Brooke could say as they stepped closer to hug her, too.
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Most of the ride was spent in silence, without even the radio to break it, because Peyton couldn't stand the thought of listening to any happy song right now, and the sad ones would do nothing to help her mood either. She leaned with her head against the window, and she offered to drive at around sunrise, because she figured Lucas might be able to get some sleep, even if she couldn't, but he declined.
When they started getting close to the hospital, Peyton realized that Madison must have made it home by now, and no doubt their whole huge extended family would be there as well. She knew that she should have told Madison what hospital, but she wanted to make sure her baby was okay before anyone else got there, and she didn't want Madison to have to be here at the hospital if Kerri wasn't okay. She could protect one of her babies, at least.
With that thought, the tears wanted to fall down her cheeks, but she had managed to keep them from falling thus far, and she wasn't going to let them slip until she was absolutely sure they should be. She knew it was ridiculous the way she was trying to stay strong, maybe for Lucas's sake, but a lot of what she felt in regards to Lucas didn't make sense to her, and some part of her just naturally held back that urge to cry in front of him.
The car finally stopped, and they got out of the car and headed into the hospital. She went straight to the nurse in front of the rest of the line, and gave her daughter's name, telling who she was. The nurse typed in Kerri Scott, and Peyton saw the flash of sympathy that she knew must mean things were really bad. She tried to ignore that as she listened to the nurse's instructions. She led the way to the waiting room to wait for the doctor.
After too many minutes, yet not enough because Peyton dreaded what the doctor was going to tell them, they heard Kerri's name get called and they approached the doctor. Peyton couldn't stand it any longer, and she took Lucas's hand for support as she listened to the doctor speak. She didn't understand many of the medical terms, but she did understand the underlying message of what he said, and it was bad.
Basically, from what she understood, there was a good chance that her daughter could die, due to major loss of blood, and internal bleeding. The doctors were fairly optimistic that they had managed to stop the internal bleeding, but sometimes with cases like Kerri's, there was no hope for the patient. It really depended on the person, and if she managed to make it through a couple days of observation without incident, then she should be fine.
Upon hearing that Kerri was probably going to be waking up soon, Peyton asked if she could see her daughter, and the doctor agreed that it would be okay for her to sit in the room, as long as Kerri still got rest when she did wake up. Peyton told Lucas to go call Madison, because she would never forgive herself if something did happen, and Madison didn't get to see her twin one last time, and followed the doctor to the room.
When the doctor left her at the door, she tried to brace herself to see her baby in a hospital bed, but nothing could have made her ready for the sight that waited for her in that room. Kerri was covered in bruises and scratches and her leg was set in a cast, as was her arm. She could also tell that her torso was bandaged up, and there was a bandage wrapped around her head. Kerri had always been the strong one, her tomboy, and it killed Peyton to see her so beat down, so broken and small looking.
Ever since she was little, Kerri had always been the strong one, but she didn't look strong anymore. She looked as weak as it is possible for a person to be, and Peyton wanted to take her broken daughter into her arms and hug and kiss her better, but she didn't want to hurt her. She stepped forward and began stroking back her daughter's golden locks, trying to touch her without touching somewhere that would hurt her as she continued to hold back her tears.
From the doorway, Lucas just watched for a moment, hoping that Peyton wouldn't use this as an excuse to pull away from him again. He knew how she was, and she would use something like this get away from him, and he didn't want to let her go, he couldn't. He needed her now more than ever, and he knew she needed him. He just wished that she would realize that, too, and soon.
More than hearing his approach, Peyton sensed him near, as some part of her had always been able to do. She turned to look at him, and as she met his blue eyes, something seemed to just click inside her, and she began bawling, and she fell into his arms, allowing him to catch her and comfort her. She felt tear drops hit the top of her head, and she knew he was crying, too, and she held onto him even more tightly, comforting him as well.
This was the worst thing they had ever gone through, the possibility of losing a child-she had no idea what would happen if the possibility turned into reality-and it seemed like the final blow. Instead of causing her to pull away from him, though, it had caused her to realize something, as she pulled back and looked into his eyes. She was sick and tired of not getting to be with him, and she wasn't going to repeat history again.
Things were going to be different this time, she vowed. Every time before, she had let him knock down some of her walls, and then she would build them back up when he hurt her again, but this time, she was going to help him knock them all the way down, and she wasn't going to let them go back up. She had complained about him not fighting for her, but she realized that she needed to fight, too, not against him, but with him, for their relationship.
Their whole relationship, they'd been outnumbered, and cornered by problems that wanted to tear them apart, and she realized she had been a part of that before. He had probably always been fighting for them, but if she was fighting on the other side, how did that make it a fair fight? She couldn't expect them to win, if they were fighting on different sides. They had to fight together, for them, and then they could win.
If she had realized this sooner, they might have been saved a lot of heartache, but then again, maybe not. They were both stronger now, had been through more things, and they were faster-in a sense-and they weren't as easily scared, or put off by the hard times. She had been trying to walk away, to get away from the heartache, but she had been wrong, completely wrong, to think that she could get through the rest of her life without Lucas.
Everything was changing now. She believed in him, and she believed in them, and the fact that they could get through anything, if they tried together. She was going to stop digging her heels in the ground, and she was going to lean on him as they went through these changes. Kerri might live or die, and either way it was going to be hard to get past this road bump, but they would beat it, together, she could see that in his eyes.
As she worked through all this in her mind, he could see it in her eyes. She finally believed in him, in them, and he could have kissed her. It was finally time for them to end this long, drawn out battle, and they would finally win, he could see it in her eyes that she knew they could beat this and any other change life could throw at them. He could practically see the walls she had spent so long building up falling down, and he was glad that he had never given it.
Sensing that she wanted to say something, he decided that he didn't need to hear it. He had thought he would need to hear some verbal confirmation when she finally gave in and let him back in, but he found that unnecessary, and before she could speak, he kissed her with a passion neither of them had felt in too long, and it said every word neither of them needed to say, and for the first time in a long time, they each heard what the other had to say.
Before they could break apart, Kerri's eyes opened, and she saw her parents as she came to. For a moment, she thought the past few years had been a dream, and there had been no editor, no book, no problems, but then she saw the room around them, and everything came back to her, including the accident, and the pain she was now in. She opened her mouth, but her voice was weak and barely there. "Hey, no PDA, guys, gross," she managed to get out.
The voice barely made it through to the two blondes, and when Peyton heard it, she almost thought she was hearing things, but when she pulled away from Lucas, and looked at her daughter, she had never been more happy to see those eyes open. She rushed over and wanted to wrap her arms around her baby girl, but she still didn't know where to touch her without hurting her, so she settled for carefully taking her hand. "Oh, baby girl," she cried.
Unable to say anything else, she bit her lip as the tears flowed more intensely. Lucas took his daughters other hand, and gently stroked her hair. "You're going to be okay, my sweet girl," he said his own blue eyes glistening with tears. "Madison's on her way now, coming from home, and she should be here in a couple of hours. She left while I was on the phone with her, and I'm sure everyone else has to get there stuff together, but they'll be here soon after," he told her.
Opening her mouth, but being unable to say anything because of her dry throat, Kerri pointed to the cup next to the bed. The doctor had told Peyton that Kerri's throat would be dry, and she would probably need some ice chips so she'd be able to talk, so Peyton gave her daughter a couple of ice chips. "She better not miss any classes because of me," Kerri said when she could find her voice.
It was such a random thing to say, that Peyton couldn't help but chuckle, as she knew was Kerri's intent. She gently ran her fingers through her daughter's blonde hair, as her other thumb still stoked her daughter's hand. "Oh, baby, don't you worry about that. You'll be better before either of you have a chance to miss much school," she promised, though she wasn't sure that was true. It helped her to try to believe that though.
The doctors had said that even if Kerri woke up, and seemed like she would be fine, that wasn't necessarily the case, so while it was okay to hold a little hope, don't set yourself up for more pain later by believing nothing could happen. That was why she had seen to it that Madison was called, so in case something did happen, the twins would see each other first. The thought that it could happen caused more tears to fall, though she tried to smile for her daughter.
Seeing her mom's face, Kerri just knew she wasn't out of the clear yet, but she didn't want to ask, because she didn't want to know. She let her parent's each hold one of her hands and she tried to take strength from them, through the pain. Peyton noticed the pain on her daughter's face, even though Kerri had always tried to hide her pain from her, and she made Kerri press the button to call the nurse.
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After Madison had gotten home, Brooke needed to get out and get some air. She had had just a tad too much to drink, and knew she was going to have to drive if they got the call to head to the hospital, so she decided to take a walk on the beach. She walked for a little while, eventually sitting down in the sand and watching the waves come in over and over again. She couldn't believe her marriage could possibly be over.
No, that was a lie. She could believe that now, these people she and Owen had somehow changed into, their marriage was definitely over, but she couldn't believe that the man she had married was not the same anymore. She had been so in love on her wedding day oh so many years ago. What had happened to him? What had happened to her? Why did whatever it was that had happened have to tear them apart?
Those were the questions she would give anything to answer, and they were the questions she really had no answer to. She wished she could say none of it mattered, but after that last fight tonight, she knew that she just couldn't ignore the fighting anymore. She knew the divorce was coming, and she finally accepted that fact as she stared out at the water. She had spent too long fighting for something that just wasn't going to work, and she was done.
Almost simultaneously with that thought, she heard a noise, and turned to see someone approaching her. He had floppy, brown-blond hair, and she could see his charming grin on his face even from the twenty feet that separated them. She could immediately tell that he was the kind of guy that she should turn away from right now, but something in her didn't stop her when he came and sat down next to her.
Neither of them spoke for a long time, and she continued thinking of Owen, and for some reason she just broke down in tears, forgetting that she was sitting next to a guy she didn't even know until she heard his voice. "Whoa, I have to admit, that's the first time I've ever gotten that reaction," he said, and she wanted to tell him to leave her alone, but she couldn't find her voice. He realized that and suddenly she felt a comforting hand on her back.
Before Brooke even realized what she was doing, she was crying into his chest and spilling her whole story to him. Despite his originally cocky attitude, he was very sympathetic, and she even found herself listening to his story. He had lost his wife ten years ago, and he had yet to have a serious relationship since. He wasn't even sure he wanted to be in another relationship, because he didn't know if he could love another as much as his wife.
Talking to this man she didn't know was surprisingly easy, easier than talking to anyone who knew her, who knew Owen and everything about her life. She did find herself spilling everything to him, though, and before she knew it, she was getting a phone call from Haley, saying that Madison was already on their way to the hospital, and everyone else was getting ready to go soon too.
Hanging up the phone, Brooke looked at the man she had been talking to, and she realized that she didn't even know his name. She felt like she had told him more about herself than she had told her husband in the past two months, and she didn't even know his name. A part of her liked the mystery, and she wanted to keep it that way, because she doubted she would ever see him again anyway. She said she had to go, and she left before they could exchange names.
A/N: What do you guys think? I have to admit, I think I really do like this chapter, even if it did frustrate me quite a bit. This is a second draft, because I had it nearly all the way written, and then my computer decided to freeze and delete it, and like the genius I am, I hadn't saved one word of it. I thought it would be murder to rewrite the whole thing, because I really had been pleased with the original results, but it wasn't as hard as I thought.
Anyway, tell me what you want to happen. I have a plan for the next chapter, but I could change my mind, if you guys give me good ideas. Should Kerri live or die? Should Brooke and Owen get a divorce? What about the new guys? Any ideas on who he should be? Should I continue the Brooke drama and get her with this guy? I know some people said they wanted Brooke with someone other then Owen, so I wanted to give you guys the option for that to happen. Give me any thoughts or comments and we'll see what happens in the next chapter. Thanks for reading and continuing to read. I love all my readers and I especially love all of my reviewers. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to One Tree Hill.