On we go…

And right when she took her first step forward, drawing in as much air as she could and still feeling like she was suffocating, right then she rather felt than heard or saw the ambulance arriving. A low rumble underneath her feet, low and distant, growing stronger, and she froze in place again.

They're here, Lucas. Just hang in there, you hear? Hang in there, Lucas Scott.

But the ambulance hadn't even come into full view yet, when a scream tore through the air, and Brooke gasped in shock, already running toward it before she knew what she was doing.

-o0o-

"Please, Luke. Do it for me then, okay?" begged Haley, holding onto Lucas' lapels with both hands and staring up into his face.

"Haley…"

"Please?"

He sighed in resignation, half-smiling at his best friend now. There she was trying to make him believe that, really, Nathan was only one among many others she tutored, and she couldn't have possibly denied him her help just because he was Lucas' idiotic half-brother… As if Lucas had no eyes to see how her behavior toward Nathan had changed during the last couple weeks. And how could he be mad at her for it? She couldn't help her feelings after all. But asking him to take care of said half-brother when the jerk managed to get so wasted he could hardly walk or stand without help? That took it all one step further. And yet he couldn't really deny her that one favor, either. After all, Haley had barely managed to pry car keys out of a nearly similarly wasted Tim, who had offered to bring Nathan home. And no matter how much Lucas resented Nathan, he wouldn't want the guy to be the victim of a drunk-driving accident…

"Oh, for heaven's sake, I'll bring him home, alright. God…"

-o0o-

When Haley heard the ambulance coming she whispered to her still unconscious best friend, "They're here, Luke, you hear? Everything's gonna be fine now… they're gonna get you out of this, alright? Lucas, it will all be good again…"

She gently touched his cold and clammy cheek and was just getting up off the ground, when she heard Peyton call out from somewhere behind her,

"Nate, please! I really think you should—"

It felt like Peyton's words triggered an unexplainable reflex because Haley couldn't help following the urge to turn around, away from the car.

"—better lie down again… and not be walking around like this…" Peyton continued somewhat needlessly, because Haley, who was facing Nathan now, could tell that he wasn't even listening to his ex-girlfriend's pleas. She stared up into his clouded face, noticed how battered he, too, looked. She wanted to touch the side of his head where she noticed traces of half-dried blood in his hair. She wanted to pull him in for a tight hug, following yet another weird instinct just as she heard a pained moan coming from somewhere behind her—from in the car... Nathan's gaze fell upon her for a second then, before he hurried past her to get to the vehicle.

"Nathan…" Peyton called him again, sounding unsure, as she looked to Haley for help. But what was Haley supposed to do? There was only so much she could actually do, and keeping Nathan from helping her with Lucas was nothing she felt up to, especially now that she felt scared to actually face her finally awakened friend.

So she watched the younger Scott slip into the wreck and check the spot where his brother's leg was still fused to a part of the car's interior. She wanted to offer to help him but found that she couldn't move, or even speak. Instead, she exchanged mute glances with the still shaking Peyton, who was hugging herself against the cold of the night air—and the cold of shock.

Only a minute now and help should be there, and still Haley prayed for the medics to get to them faster. They needed to get Lucas out of there, and soon.

They couldn't arrive fast enough…

-o0o-

When Lucas next opened his eyes, he felt like everything around him had somehow changed. The light looked different, his position felt way worse than before. He had the horrible sensation of being drained, of being deathly tired. It was so hard to concentrate on anything, and he noticed that, strangely, his thoughts seemed to spiral down a path of abstraction rather than trying to hold on to the more concrete things, like where he was, who was with him, what had happened to him, what would happen next, where was…

… Nathan. Suddenly Lucas' gaze focused right on his brother and he was aware enough to wonder what might have happened that Nate was back again all of a sudden, for hadn't he been gone before? Gone to get help?

"N-nate?" he whispered, his voice not much more than a rasp. He wanted to extend a hand and touch the other one, make sure that he wasn't hallucinating due to the blood loss—which had to be severe by now. But his arm simply wouldn't move. And then Lucas heard the sound of sirens from somewhere out there, and turning a little too eagerly, the steel of the steering wheel tore at his damaged leg again. Being too weak after all those minutes—hours?—of waiting nailed upside down to his car, Lucas couldn't stifle a loud and pain-filled scream.

When Brooke heard Lucas scream like that she felt like her heart was being ripped right out of her chest. She remembered that she was supposed to be mad at Lucas for having flirted with Peyton earlier that night. She knew she was supposed to be mad at her best friend for the same thing. But what was the sense in that if Lucas' screaming might be the last thing she'd ever hear of him? And what was the sense of being mad if being mad only meant hurting herself because it would keep her away from the only thing she wanted to do right now, which was being there for Lucas, being close to him, holding him?

There really was no sense in all that—and hearing that piercing, heartbreaking scream therefore sent her straight to the car—and to the guy she loved. No matter what people might think, no matter what she might want to think herself. She loved him, and it was at that very moment that she finally understood just how much.

"Lucas!" she called out even before she arrived at the car and pushed her way through Peyton's and Haley's halfhearted attempts to hold her back. "Lucas!"

And what if he died now? What if he was dying and she…

Brooke's gaze fell on the shattered windshield then, and for the first time that night she took a proper look at Lucas Scott. It was surreal: he was basically dangling from his seat, although Nathan appeared to be trying to hold him in a less awkward position than that. But what with him only being able to use his one arm for that, the outcome wasn't all too great either.

Lucas had stopped screaming by then, Brooke could hear him whisper a shaky apology. And suddenly his eyes met hers and she felt herself stiffen yet again.

"Lucas Scott," Brooke whispered. She felt Haley's hand on her shoulder, heard tutor girl ask something, even though she couldn't follow her words, too focused was she on Lucas. Brooke desperately wanted to say something light and cheery to him. She wanted to playfully scold him for making such a mess of himself, of his car. But all she could say was, "You scared me, Lucas…" before tears finally welled up in her eyes and she gently cupped his pale face in her hands. And lowering her forehead to his, she wallowed in the feeling of his breath against her skin, just when behind her a voice called out,

"Move, please. Move!"

As if stung, she followed the order and moved away, backwards, past Haley and into Peyton's arms, making room for two men. She distantly noticed how short one of them was, while the other could definitely do with a haircut. And still, she had never in her life prayed for anyone's arrival more sincerely than for theirs.

And thank god they were finally here.

Cupping her mouth with her hand, and allowing herself to lean more into her best friend, she finally started crying for real. "Oh god…" she made, and suddenly it was Peyton consoling her, turning her around, staring into her unseeing eyes, and wrapping her arms around Brooke like their stupid fight had never happened.

-o0o-

"I'm fine," Nathan pressed out between clenched teeth, while he was staring past the medic attending to his arm. While he was only reluctantly allowing the man to inspect the injury, his gaze was locked on the wreck of Lucas' car, where a rescue team was now cutting through the metal. They still hadn't managed to get Lucas out of there, and though Nathan would be the last one to admit it, he terribly worried for the older one's life. What if he died in there? What if he died and only because he had conceded to bringing Nathan home? When actually he had surely planned to stay at the beach for a little while longer, until that other car would have long been gone from that road…

"This is going to hurt now," the medic was saying, but Nathan wasn't paying much attention until a searing heat ran up and down his arm and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from gasping out in pain.

Oh god, and Dan, Dan would kill him. For being stupid enough to get hurt in a car accident. For…

Those kids in the other car, Nathan couldn't forget their faces—what had been left of them. All that gore, it had been everywhere. Everywhere.

"Nathan?" Haley stood a few feet off to the side of the second ambulance. It had arrived not long after the first, along with the rescue team and the police. She was hugging herself, but all she really wanted to do was hug that dark haired boy who stared at her now like she were not really there. Like he didn't really see her.

She knew it was a stupid thought—an atrocious thought, even—but she couldn't help feeling left out somehow. She was Lucas' best friend, but still she had been shoved to the side by the medics, and by Brooke. Weirdly, Haley had felt like she had no right to be as inconsolable about Lucas' state as Brooke, or even Peyton, with whom Lucas had had something going on at some time, too. But Haley—Haley had always "only" been a friend… She felt for Brooke, she truly did. The cheerleader really did seem to love Luke after all, and who was Haley to judge her for being selfish about it, about Lucas? Who was she to judge, when all she wanted to do now was be completely selfish, too?

Nathan was looking past her again, his freshly bandaged arm lying in his lap now, while the medic was treating his head wound. Or: trying to, for Nathan was continuously trying to back away from the man, until he sighed in resignation and addressed Haley,

"Hey, um—"

"Haley."

"Haley, okay. Do you think you could make your friend here cooperate just a little? I'm only trying to help here, maybe you could…"

"Uh—sure. I…" Haley stared from the medic to the younger Scott brother and back again. What kind of relationship did the guy think they had? She was lucky Nathan had started doing what she told him when it came to English grammar—or math. But other than that? And when he was like this?

"Nathan?" she called his name again, walking a little closer to where he sat. She had to repeat it another time, before he finally turned to her. The look in his eyes sent shivers down her spine. He was still the same guy she tutored, she could see that. But she could also see a little more of what he was always so desperately trying to hide from her—from everyone. He was just a frightened kid, too, just like everybody else. And right now he was probably the most scared kid she had ever seen.

"Let the medic do his work, okay?" she whispered and carefully extended an arm to touch him, ever so slightly. He didn't flinch. Her fingers lightly grazed the bare skin of his uninjured forearm, a soft, un-intrusive touch. Already he was staring ahead again, but he was sitting still for once. When she was sitting down beside him, her arm and shoulder touching his, the medic wordlessly thanked her, and she smiled a little sadly.

Nathan didn't say one word. He couldn't. And he was glad that tutor girl didn't press him. She just sat there, and that alone was enough for it all to be at least a little more bearable.

That feeling only lasted a minute, though, until another clipped scream cut through the night, and Nathan startled to his feet, batting away both Haley and the medic, and ran to where the rescue team was finally lifting Lucas out of his seat before lowering him onto a gurney, Brooke never far away.

The brunette latched onto Lucas like he were her lifeline. And in fact it was Lucas who whispered to her that it was alright, everything would be alright—like it was Brooke who had been in the accident rather than the other way around. And Peyton's usually self-confident best friend smiled weakly at that while holding Lucas' hand.

Nathan reached the gurney right before his older brother was eventually being wheeled away. He was half aware of Haley coming up right at his side and stretching out a hand to grab Luke's. The one Brooke wasn't clinging to.

"Hey…" said Haley and Lucas together, the latter's voice raspy and weak from his having cried out.

Suddenly, Nathan felt awkward, like some sort of intruder, and his eyes met Peyton's. His ex stood not far to the side, and yet she appeared to be no part of all this either. Weird, thought Nathan, and shouldn't he feel more of a connection with her then? But he did…

Absently he wiped an arm across his face, trying to clear his suddenly blurry vision. It took a moment for him to realize that someone had called him again. Not Peyton.

"Nate?"

"Nathan? Are you okay?"

Lucas. And Haley. He stared from one to the other, half smiling, when he noticed the concern in tutor girl's pretty face. She never looked at him like that. He was no guy you looked at with that expression on your face. And yet she was not the only one doing it.

"Nate? You alright?"

It was then that he laughed, if a little weakly, and muttered, "Asked the guy lying on a friggin' gurney…"

And after that?

No memory. Until he opened his eyes to the white tiles of a hospital room's ceiling.