For one odd moment, they all seemed to be entwined, Dan, Keith, Karen, Deb; until Dan shook them all off again, sending Keith tumbling into the two women. He shoved even Brooke to the side. Her feeble attempt to shield Lucas from his estranged father's wrath thus only resulted in her ending up pushed against the wall, having to helplessly watch as the man stopped right in front of Lucas and grabbed him by his shirt—

"Dad!"

At hearing that yell Dan loosened his grip as if stung and stared at his hand as if it belonged to someone else. He stared down at Lucas lying in his bed, wide-eyed. He stared over to where Nathan was suddenly standing in the doorway, then back down at his hand.

"Nathan!" he heard Deb exclaim, only to echo her instantly.

"Nathan," he whispered genuinely surprised at his son's sudden appearance and turned around to fully face him. He wondered how the hell he could have forgotten to check on him first before… before demanding an explanation regarding the accident from Lucas.

"Nathan. Are you okay?" Dan finally queried just as he became aware of all the people he had apparently alerted to himself, the doctor only one among them.

"Sir?" the man called out warily and Dan nodded, saying "It's fine. I'm not going to do anything, alright? No need for the cavalry, really. You can tell them to leave, okay?" Raising both hands in a gesture of surrender he tried to convince various hospital staff members as well as his own son that he meant no harm, that he was posing no threat to anyone. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Keith had been helped up by Karen and Deb and was now keeping the latter from running to her son and surely crushing him in a desperate hug. He chose to ignore the three of them for the moment, though, because all that counted now was Nathan's health. Apparently he was fit enough to walk the hallways again, so Dan concluded that everything couldn't be as bad as he had initially pictured it in his mind. Coming yet a little closer, he was bewildered at seeing Nathan flinch away from him. He extended an arm to lay a hand on the kid's shoulder, but Nathan only backed away further still and glared at Dan.

"Sir!"

"What the hell, Dad?" Nathan hissed and with his body he shielded Haley from his father, thus making sure Dan wouldn't attack her too.

"Nathan…" Dan pleaded. He noticed how awkwardly his son was holding his arm, which was dressed in heavy bandages, and he indicated the obvious injury asking, "Does it hurt?"

"Does it hurt?" Nathan repeated spitting the words out, and his voice rang with incredulity. "Dad, you just shoved everyone out of the way, you sent Keith to the damn floor to—what?—throttle Luke?—and you ask me if it hurts? God, what the hell is wrong with you!"

"Kiddo…" soothed Dan and made another attempt at putting a reassuring hand on Nate's shoulder, but again to no avail. He only alerted the stupid clinic personnel to his doings and would probably have to thank Keith later-on for preventing them from coming at him then.

"Dan…" his brother muttered, then hurried to assure the others, "I got it now, thanks." Already he was leading the younger one off to the side and added, "I'm sorry for—all the commotion we created, but my brother is not going to do anything now, I'll see to that. Right, Dan?"

Reluctantly, the addressee of those words nodded his consent. It seemed to be the only way for them to get rid of their audience eventually and besides, Dan's common sense had kicked back in by that time. He knew that what he had been up to doing only a minute ago could have completely undermined his good reputation for good. And of course that was not an option. So he nodded again, showed the idiots his hands, allowed Keith to tighten the grip on his arm, and said, "I'm sorry, okay?" He tried to put some true conviction into the words and knew he had succeeded when the doctor finally herded the other people wearing scrubs out of the room.

"I want all of you to leave this room," the man ordered, his voice sounding eerily calm. "Now. This is a hospital, it's no place for any of you to fight their personal fights." He glared at the group of adults with their downcast eyes, then focused his attention on the boys' father. "My patient—your son— needs to rest, Mr. Scott. And if you don't want me to call the police and have you arrested you will leave now. I won't allow you back in the room unless I'm completely certain you won't cause the boy any more harm."

"Of course, Dr.—" Dan risked a glance and deciphered the man's name, "Carver. I'm sorry."

"You better be. Your behavior was completely inappropriate, and I won't have you behave like that around my patients ever again. Now go. All of you.—And Nathan: you really shouldn't have gotten up. You need to stay in bed.—Sandra, lead him back to his room and make sure he'll stay there until I have checked him over again. I'll only be a few minutes."

"Yes, Dr. Carver.—Nathan?"

It took Nathan a moment to realize someone was talking to him, but he wasn't ready yet to leave. First he had to make sure his father was really going to leave the room. And he had to make sure that Lucas was alright.

He was only half aware of someone slipping their hand into his and gently clasping it, tugging at it.

"Come on, Nathan, it's alright," he distantly heard Haley whisper and stared down at her. Then he raised his head again and his eyes met Lucas's.

"You okay?" he asked and saw the older one nod. Brooke was holding onto Luke's arm, eyeing Nathan suspiciously. Or maybe he was only imagining that. Just as he might be imagining seeing panicky desperation in his mother's expression, Keith's tired anger, his father's look of—hurt?—Lucas's compassion, and pain.

"Let's go…" Haley whispered again, waving to Lucas now while tightening her grip on his brother's hand. "I'll come visit you tomorrow, Luke, okay?"

And finally, Nathan saw them all leave, his mom, Keith, his dad, even Karen, and he found that he could leave now, too, follow Haley and that nurse back to his room—one night more in this darn place surely wouldn't kill him, and he was so damn tired anyway, so…

-o0o-

Haley laughed and shoved Lucas away in response to his last stupid remark. They were on their way back home, finally getting away from the stupid party that had ended in a near disaster once Lucas and Nathan had started fighting earlier. Luke was already sporting a heavy discoloration around his eye as a result, but at least he had regained some of his good mood by the time they had decided to call it a day and drive back to Tree Hill.

"And anyway, which girl would not fight over a guy like me, eh?" Lucas laughed and chased her across the parking lot. "Come on, Hales, you know you would, too!" he called, nudging her side playfully when she said, "Oh shut up, Scott!" Grinning widely she shoved him away again, using both hands, when suddenly her gaze fell on a figure sitting slumped against a car tire, and her movements froze.

"Aw, see? You're giving in. Finally! That's the smart girl I know." Lucas came back to her, lightly put an arm around her shoulder, and waited for another snarky comment. But Haley remained silent.

"Hales?" he asked and eventually followed her gaze to where he could see Tim struggling to open his car's door. The guy looked even more drunk than last time he had seen him, and Lucas absolutely didn't feel like having to listen to the crap again that usually left the guy's mouth. Once had been more than enough already. But the idiot was trying to get into his car—drunk as he was, and that was something Lucas couldn't ignore even if he wanted to. He sighed in annoyance and passed his best friend a glance.

"Darn that idiot. We can't let him drive like that."

"No…" Haley agreed, sounding absent, though, and Lucas noticed that her gaze was focused on something other than Tim. Cocking his head a little, he saw what it was—or rather who it was—and hissed out a stream of air. Great. What was worse than one wasted guy trying to drive himself home? A wasted guy trying to drive himself and his wasted jackass friend home. And if that wasted friend was Lucas's stupid half-brother to boot, then everything was just plain old awesome.

"Goddammit, Tim!" he called out as he disentangled his arm from Haley. "What the hell do you think you're doing, huh?"

"Well, if that ain't Lucas Scott, the smartass geek himself!" exclaimed Tim and grinned, slumping against his car in an effort to stay upright.

"Give me your keys, you jerk."

"Nope. Sorry, no can do. This baby's not gonna go in any geek's hands." He patted the roof of his car, then glanced down at his friend. "Besides. I have to get Nate home before that stupid dad of yours finds out he was… he went—to the party, and…"

Suddenly, Nate's cute but geeky tutor came right at him and with oddly fast movements managed to steal the car keys from him, stunning him into awed silence.

"You're not driving anyone anywhere, Tim."

"Uh," he made, trying to get his sluggish tongue to move, trying to get his sluggish mind to function. "You guys don't understand… I need to get him home. Now. Dan's gonna be pissed if Nate doesn't come home within the next two hours, 'kay? Dude just called and threatened to have both me and Nate here killed and thrown out of the team—in that order, got that? So…" He turned around again and tried to open the door, seemingly having forgotten that he needed his keys for that. Once he noticed it, the girl, Haley, had already passed the keys on to Lucas and knelt down beside Nate. From what Tim could tell she had apparently started pep talking the guy into showing some sort of reaction. More than Tim himself had managed in the last couple minutes.

"Nathan. Can you get up? Come on, we need you to get up now, okay?" Haley said as she placed both her hands on his cheeks. "Nathan… at least look at me, will you?"

"'m sorry Hales, too tired. Just—leave me alone, 'kay?"

"No. Nathan. Your dad's waiting for you, okay? We need to get you home."

"Crap, no. Not home. He's just gonna kill me anyway. I don't wanna go home… I don't—I can't take this anymore, not tonight…" Nate whispered, his thick voice reaching even Lucas who had bent down to him by then in order to hoist him up into a standing position.

Haley looked at Lucas with concern and he couldn't help but wonder what exactly Nathan might have done to make a smart girl like Haley fall for his shallow charms. Shaking his head in disbelief, he clasped his arms around the younger one and pulled him upwards until he was at least balancing on his own feet.

I'm doing it for Haley, Luke had to remind himself when Nathan's head lolled against him, I'm only doing it for her…

"God, Nathan, you're heavy," he pressed out between clenched teeth as he tried to come up with a solution to this new dilemma. "Haley, go and find Peyton, okay? Maybe she can bring him home, She's his ex after all, so Dan might, you know…"

"Oh please, Lucas. You can't dump that on her, now can you? It's... you don't do that. Let's—you bring him home, okay? Lucas?"

"Ugh, Haley? It's not my business. He's—"

"He's your brother, Luke. And you know what Dan is like."

"Don't, Haley. Okay? Just—don't. So what if he is my brother, huh? It's not like that ever mattered to him in the past, right? So why should it matter to me now all of a sudden? It doesn't," he stated forcibly and with more anger than he had known he felt.

Haley eyed him, with one hand absentmindedly fisting the back of Nathan's shirt and her imploring gaze slowly got through past all of Lucas's defenses. That girl…

"No. Haley. Alright, not Peyton, okay? Jake, then…"

"Luke, please. He is your brother if you want it or not. Do it for him. Maybe…"

"Guys, care to give a guy back his keys here?—No?" Tim tried to butt in, but neither of the two paid him any attention. And what the hell? He might just as well grab another beer before leaving then…

"I told you I won't do anything for him!" Lucas bit out, his voice tinged with all the venom actually directed at his oblivious half-brother. But now it only hit his best friend.

"Please, Luke. Do it for me then, okay?" Haley suddenly begged, holding onto Lucas' lapels with both hands and staring up into his face. Only briefly Lucas was surprised at how well she knew him, how well she could manipulate him.

"Haley…"

"Please?"

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

-o0o-

The doctor waited until nearly everyone had left Lucas Scott's room before he went up to the kid's bed and asked,

"Are you alright, Lucas?"

"Just peachy, Doc," Lucas weakly said and looked from Brooke to the doctor, noticing the man smile.

"Good," Carver said, quickly checked his patient's vital signs, and wrote something down onto Lucas's chart. Then he glanced at Brooke and smiling noted, "You know, Miss, I'm quite certain I asked everyone of you to leave…"

Brooke's eyes widened and gave away her true feelings when she switched on that famous flirty posture of hers and playfully said, "Aw, Doc, I'm not everyone, am I? I really think one exception won't kill anyone, don't you think so too?" She smiled, white teeth flashing, and lightly placed one hand on his arm, and Carver had to admit that she was pretty good at what she was intending to do, persuading him to let her stay. But really…

"I'm sorry, Miss—"

"Brooke. And don't be sorry, just let me stay… I promise I can be as silent as if I weren't even here. Okay? Please?…"

Sighing, he exchanged a glance with the Scott kid, assured himself that he really was alright and wouldn't mind the brunette staying with him. But all he could see was Lucas's exhaustion, and something else his father's appearance had caused to mar his features with worry, or pain maybe—and this time, it wasn't physical pain. Well, maybe he shouldn't be alone right now, maybe he did need this girl to sit by his side and watch him drift off into well needed sleep. Maybe he needed her to assure that no nightmares would disturb his sleep for too long. Maybe he just needed her.

"Alright," Carver therefore conceded, surprising even himself with his decision. "You may stay. But: no keeping my patient from sleeping, is this understood?"

"Yes, Doc!" Brooke happily exclaimed. "I mean, Dr. Carver.—Thank you, Sir. I will just—" she indicated her chair, already lowering herself into it again, "sit here and wait. Silently. I can be very quiet if I want to. I mean—I will be very quiet, I'm good at quiet. Actually, I excel at quiet." She beamed at him, her hand never once breaking contact with Lucas's arm; oh, she was so glad.

"Well then…" Dr. Carver smiled gently and retreated to the door. "I'll personally be checking on you again in a bit, and I better not find Lucas doing anything other than sleeping…" he warned, wiggling a finger in a playful warning before closing the door behind him, finally leaving Brooke and Lucas to themselves again…