A/N: Hey there guys! So first of all, thank you for the amazing reviews I've gotten! Yall have no idea how much they mean to me! I'm so glad people actually like this story. Second, thank you Morgan for all your help! This story seriously would not exist anymore if it wasn't for you! And third, here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy it!
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
Peyton stood in her bathroom, fixing her makeup and mentally preparing herself for today.
"Peyt, you in there?" she heard Tim ask as he walked into her bedroom.
"In here babe!" she shouted back.
"Hey baby," he whispered, kissing her neck gently. She leaned back into him for a moment as her cell phone began to ring.
"It's Nate," Peyton mumbled before answering, "Hey Nate."
"Peyton, I need your help!" he said quietly.
"Sure, what is it?"
"It's Brooke. She won't get out of bed and we have to leave in an hour to get to the church," he replied.
"Okay, Tim and I are on our way. Give me ten minutes!" Peyton told him. She hung up the phone, quickly finished her makeup, and was out the door with Tim behind her.
At Nathan's:
"Thanks for coming guys!" Nathan said as Tim and Peyton walked in the house.
"Not a problem! Is she upstairs?" Peyton asked, giving Nathan a quick hug.
"Yeah, in my room. Go on up," he answered, following Tim into the kitchen where Dan was. Peyton rushed up the stairs and down the hall to Nathan's room. Opening the door, she saw Brooke sprawled face down under the covers. Her eyes were closed but Peyton could tell she was awake.
"B. Davis?" she whispered, lying down next to her.
"Go away," Brooke muttered, trying to roll away from Peyton. Peyton wrapped her arms around Brooke, holding her tight against her chest.
"I'm not going anywhere Brooke! You can kick and scream all you want. But you will get up, take a shower, and get dressed whether I have to force you or not!" Peyton said sternly.
"What's the point? She's dead. Why do I have to go to the funeral? It won't bring her back," Brooke said, crying on Peyton's shoulder. Peyton decided a little tough love was what Brooke needed in order to get her through this moment.
"That's right Brooke, Molly Erin is gone. And I'm sorry for that. But lying in bed wasting away isn't going to bring her back either. So get up and get ready for the funeral. Nathan needs you. And I'm pretty sure you need him too even though you won't admit it!" Peyton told her, grabbing Brooke's hands and dragging her off the bed and towards the shower.
45 Minutes Later:
Nathan left the kitchen to go check on Brooke but was stopped by Peyton standing in the hallway; her head leaned back against the wall outside of Nathan's room.
"Everything okay Peyt?" he asked.
"Yeah!" she smiled, "Brooke's just getting dressed. She'll be ready to go in just a minute."
"Thank you so much Peyton!" he said with the first genuine smile all week, "I'm gonna go check on her. Go on downstairs. We'll meet you there."
Peyton gave him a forced smile as he walked into his bedroom. Brooke was sitting on the edge of the bed, shoes on and her dress unzipped, holding back her tears.
"Brooke?" he whispered. At the sound of his voice, she stood from the bed to face him.
"You ready to go?" he asked, walking towards her.
"Yeah, um, can you zip me up?" she asked quietly, a shy smile forming on her lips. He walked behind her, his fingers grazing her back as he slid the zipper up. Once the dress was zipped, he pulled his fingers through her hair, letting it cascade down her back.
Brooke sighed and leaned her head back onto his shoulder, forgetting her pain for a moment. Nathan gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. When she looked up into his eyes, she recognized the man she fell in love with. Her Nathan.
Seeing the sad, lost look on Brooke's face, he just wanted to ease her pain. Leaning down quickly, he brought his lips to meet hers with a passion he had never experienced before. As the kiss deepened, Brooke tangled her hands in his hair, pulling him closer. As she slid her tongue across his bottom lip, Nathan thought he was going to lose it. He could feel his excitement growing. And so could Brooke. She pushed her hips forward, feeling him against her lower stomach. At first she thought that was what she wanted. But feeling him against her, she realized what she was doing.
As quickly as it had started, it was over. Brooke braced her hands against his chest and pushed him away with all of her strength, gasping for air. Nathan's eyes stayed closed for half a second until he realized what happened. Opening his eyes, he saw Brooke standing about a foot away from him with a look of pure hatred.
"Brooke," he started before a slap cut him off. He brought his hand up to his stinging cheek, barely registering the fact that Brooke had actually just slapped him.
"How dare you! Molly Erin is dead! We have to go to her funeral! And here you are trying to seduce me or whatever the hell you're trying to do?" Brooke spat viciously.
"No, Brooke, I wasn't trying to. I just miss you. I know Molly is gone. And it hurts Brooke. I'm hurting just as much as you are. And I know you blame yourself, but you shouldn't! I should have realized something was wrong. I know you well enough to know when something is wrong and I should have known! So I'm sorry. But you can't keep pushing me away! You need me, I know you do. And I need you too!" Nathan explained, reaching out for her.
"Don't fucking touch me!" she whispered harshly, walking away from him. Nathan's voice stopped her right before she left the room.
"Brooke, don't do this," he said, his voice breaking.
"I haven't done anything Nathan. You're the one that thought you could make it better with sex. So don't touch me. Don't talk to me! I don't want to hear your voice. In fact, don't even look at me!" she yelled, turning and running down the stairs.
By the time Nathan recovered from her words and got downstairs, Dan and Tim were the only ones left.
"She went to the church with Peyton," Dan said, answering his son's unspoken question.
"Did yall hear all of that?" Nathan asked, eyes on the floor, not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.
"It doesn't matter Nathan. Let's go," Dan replied, leading his son to the garage.
After The Funeral:
Brooke sat in the chair in front of her daughter's casket. They were getting ready to lower it into the ground. She couldn't believe how small it was.
During the actual funeral, she sat in the first row, Dan in-between her and Nathan. She just sat there staring at the cross on the wall behind Molly Erin's casket. The words spoken were barely heard to her. She just sat, still as a stone, with no tears falling from her eyes while everyone around her cried like babies. Even Lucas and Dan. Apparently, Molly's death affected more than just her. But she didn't care.
And now, before they lowered Molly into the ground, everyone she knew walked by her, giving their condolences. Brooke didn't even bother trying to hug the people back. She sat and let them hug her and cry to her.
"Brooke, it's time to go," she heard someone whisper from behind her. Turning around, she saw Haley and Lucas standing there with Peyton. Peyton's hand was on her shoulder while Lucas had one arm around Haley's waist. Haley stood there with her hand on her belly. Seeing Haley's pregnant body suddenly made her so angry. Before she could say or do anything, Peyton turned to tell them to leave, seeing the look in Brooke's eyes.
"We'll see you there," Lucas whispered, turning to leave. They were headed to Nathan's house for the wake/luncheon they were having.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Brooke broke down in tears.
"It's not fair! Why did Molly have to die? I didn't do anything wrong! But Haley, on the other hand, and Lucas, both cheated on me and Nathan. Yet they get to keep their baby? It's not fair!" Brooke screamed. Peyton ran around the chairs to kneel in front of Brooke. She wrapped her arms around the brunette, feeling Brooke cling onto her for dear life. After another moment or two, Brooke's sobs stopped.
"Brooke, it's okay to be upset," Peyton said. Leaning back from Brooke a little. Brooke then stood quickly, almost knocking Peyton down in the process.
"I'm not upset! I'm mad!" Brooke told her, starting to pace in front of the large hole in the ground.
"I'm mad Peyton. I'm so angry! Why did it have to happen to her? Do you realize that I don't even know what color eyes she had? Her eyes were never opened! And I'll never get to see her crawl, or take her first steps, or say her first word! And I'll never get to have bath time with her. Or get annoyed when I step on one of her many toys! And I'll never be able to laugh when Nathan slips up and cusses in front of her, causing her to say the same word over and over like babies do. I'll never get to cry on her first day of school when I drop her off. Or be so insanely happy to see her at the end of that first day! I don't get any of that now! All because I couldn't speak up and tell someone that she quit kicking! It's all my fault Peyton and that makes me so mad," Brooke ranted, tears running down her cheeks as she spoke. Peyton had stayed kneeled to the ground, taking in every word.
"Brooke," Peyton said, standing up to face her.
"No, I don't want your pity. Or sympathy or whatever. Let's just go and get this over with so I can go back to bed," Brooke mumbled, walking to the car, leaving the blonde staring at the hole in the ground, tears matching the brunette's.
Back at Nathan's:
Brooke entered through the back door, hoping to slip in unnoticed and go straight to bed. She wasn't that lucky.
"Brooke, I'm so sorry," Karen said, giving her a tight hug. She was then surrounded by all of their friends, everyone wanting to say so much but really saying nothing.
"Thank you for coming," Brooke whispered to everyone, walking through the crowd gathered in the kitchen. As she passed Haley and Lucas, she heard a gasp from Haley. Before she could do anything, Brooke was slipping through some kind of liquid that was pooling on the kitchen floor. Nathan, standing at the edge of the crowd, rushed forward and caught her before she fell.
"I thought I told you not to touch me," Brooke said, trying to right herself. She untangled herself from Nathan's arms and turned around, seeing a pained look on Haley's face. She then looked down and saw the clear liquid on the floor.
"What the hell is that?" she demanded, confused looks on everyone's faces.
"My water broke," Haley whispered just loud enough for Brooke, Lucas, and Nathan to hear.
"What? Oh God, Haley," Lucas muttered, fear present in his eyes. At this point, the rest of their friends in the room realized what was going on. Karen rushed to her side.
"We need to get to the hospital," Karen said, immediately going into 'mom mode.'
"Oh this is just great!" they heard Brooke mumble in disgust. They all stopped walking and turned to look at her.
"What are you talking about Brooke?" Haley asked, a look of worry on her face.
"You! Of course, you would go into labor at my dead daughter's funeral!" Brooke shouted at her.
"Brooke!" Peyton shouted, rushing to her side in case she had to hold her back.
"No, I'm serious! The one day you knew would be the hardest and you go into labor!"
"It's not like I planned it Brooke! I'm not even due for at least another week!" Haley cried, trying to defend herself.
"Whatever. Just get out," Brooke murmured, hands on her hips.
"Let's just go Hales," Lucas said, guiding her to the door. Nathan stared at Brooke for a second before following Lucas and Haley, shaking his head at her.
"Luke! Wait up!" Nathan yelled, running to catch them at the car.
"Haley, Lucas, I'm sorry about that," he said as they helped Haley get into Lucas' car. Skills and Bevin, parked behind Lucas, were giving Karen a ride to the hospital.
"Nate, it's okay. I know she didn't mean it. She's just broken right now," Haley told him, trying to smile through her own pain.
"Listen, I'm going to make everyone leave. I'll meet you guys at the hospital okay?" Nathan asked. Lucas creased his brow in concern.
"Shouldn't you stay here with Brooke?" he questioned, concerned about the brunette after that outburst.
"She's probably just going to bed. She'll be okay for a while. My dad is here if he needs anything. Besides, I have to be there to meet my niece or nephew!" Nathan said, trying to smile. He was still feeling the pain of losing Molly. And he knew seeing Luke and Haley's baby would only make it worse. But he was trying not to show it. He wanted to be there for his brother and Haley. He was trying to stay strong for everyone and not break down.
"Don't you mean godson or daughter?" Haley asked with a laugh. Nathan's eyes went wide with surprise.
"Really?" he asked with shock evident in his voice. Lucas and Haley nodded their heads with smiles on their faces.
"We want Brooke to be the godmother too. But I don't know how she would feel about it," Lucas told him, going around the car and getting into the driver's seat. Nathan wasn't sure what to say to that. He just shrugged his shoulders before returning to the house.
When Nathan walked back into his house, he noticed most of the guests all heading towards the front door, ready to leave. He figured his dad had probably asked everyone to leave, giving the family time to be alone. Not seeing Brooke anywhere in his sight, he looked to Peyton and Tim huddled at the kitchen table.
"She went upstairs," Tim said quietly.
"What, can you people read minds or something?" Nathan laughed, heading towards the stairs. Tim jogged over to him and put his hand on Nathan's shoulder to stop him.
"You mind if I try to talk to her?" Tim asked. Nathan just nodded his head and went to sit at the table with Peyton.
"So, I don't really know what to say to you right now. But what I do know is that there are a bunch of left over finger foods from earlier! You hungry?" Peyton asked him, eyeing all the food still out on the kitchen counters.
"Yeah let's eat!" he said as he went to grab all the trays and bring them to the table. He set them down before grabbing a few sodas out of the fridge for the two of them.
Upstairs:
"Brooke you in here?" Tim asked quietly, peeking in Nathan's room. He didn't see her on the bed so he walked further into the room. Brooke was sitting on the floor at the end of the bed clutching something in her hands.
"B?" Tim said, kneeling down next to her. She didn't look up at him. She just kept staring at the object in her hands, which looked like a picture frame from Tim's view. He gently eased the item out of her grasp, realizing that it was her first ultrasound picture.
"She was alive then," Brooke cried, finally looking up at him. Tim didn't say a word, just set the frame down and gathered his friend in his arms. He rocked her back and forth, trying to calm her down. They stayed like that for about twenty minutes; Tim rocking and Brooke crying. When she lifted her head from his shoulder, he saw no more tears.
"Tim, why are you here?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"Why wouldn't I be here?" he asked back, confusion clear on his face.
"You can go Timmy. I don't need a babysitter. I'm not going to do anything stupid," she told him, sitting straight with her back against the bed.
"Well that's good because I didn't think you would anyways. And I'm not babysitting you either. You're my friend B. That's why I'm here. Your pain is my pain. And we don't have to do anything, we don't have to even talk if you don't want to. We can just sit here and stare at the wall together. I'm here though Brooke and I'm not going to leave you. Whatever it is you need, I'll do it. You can kick and scream, cuss me out, punch holes in the wall, punch me if you really want to! But I'm not leaving because you're my friend and I love you," Tim explained. Brooke just laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.
For the next two hours they sat this way. The only time Tim moved was to text Peyton to let her know what was going on, that she should go on home if she wanted, and that he would meet her there later.
"B?" Tim asked in a whisper, not sure if she was still awake. She hadn't made a sound in about forty minutes.
"Yeah?"
"Can we change positions? My ass just went numb," he whispered back, not joking. Brooke couldn't even answer him because she erupted into a fit of giggles. Tim stared at her in bewilderment for a moment, not sure why that was so funny, before he started laughing along with her.
"Timmy, oh God," Brooke said, unable to form a sentence through her laughter. She lay on her side, clutching her stomach while she laughed.
Finally, when the giggles had almost completely subsided, Brooke sat up, trying to stop hiccupping.
"Thank you," she said honestly, glancing over at Tim.
"For what?"
"For just being here. For not pressuring me to talk about it. Everyone tries to get me to talk about it, like somehow that's going to make it all better. When really it makes it worse. It makes it more real. But you," she said with a smile, "you just sat here in silence with me. You stared at the wall with me. You let me handle it in my own way. So thank you."
"You're welcome. I told you B, you're my friend. So I'm here as long as you need me to be," he said as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw he had a text message from Peyton. It said "Hey babe, at the hospital w/H & L. IT'S A BOY!"
Brooke leaned over and read the message. She inhaled sharply before releasing the breath.
"Go on Timmy," she told him, nodding her head towards the door.
"You don't want to come?" he asked, standing off the ground. He shook his butt around for a second to get the numbness to go away. Brooke laughed at him before getting serious again.
"No, I don't want to go," she simply said.
"Alright, well Dan is downstairs if you need anything," he told her as he turned for the door.
"Dan? Where's Nathan?" she asked him, anger setting in on her face.
"He went to the hospital earlier. I thought you knew he was going," Tim replied.
"No, I didn't know. What an ass!" she said under her breath, "Just go Tim. I'll see you later."
At The Hospital:
Tim rushed into the waiting room to see Peyton, Karen, Skills, Bevin, Mouth, Junk, Fergie, and Haley's parents standing around with smiles on their faces. Up seeing Tim, Peyton ran up to him and jumped into his arms. She looked into his eyes and before she could ask her question, he answered her.
"She's gonna be okay Peyt. It's going to take a while but she'll get through it in her own way," he told her, "Where's Nate?"
"In the room with Haley and Lucas. They made him the godfather!" Peyton answered, "The room is down the hall, third door on the right. Go see them!"
Tim walked down the hall and knocked quietly on the door to Haley's room. Lucas opened the door with a huge smile and ushered Tim into the room.
"Tim, meet Mason Keith Scott!" Lucas cheered, pointing to the baby cuddled in Nathan's arms in the rocking chair. Nathan looked up at that moment and everyone could see how much this was hurting him.
"Nate," Haley whispered, tears of her own forming in her eyes.
"No, I'm okay, really. It's just hard," he said, standing to hand Mason over to Tim. He then rushed out of the room, running past the waiting room and down the stairs in a desperate attempt to get away from everyone. When he finally made it to the bottom floor, he just sat down on the last step and cried.
"Nathan," he heard from behind him, instantly recognizing the voice. It was Haley's dad. Nathan turned to his right to see Jimmy sit down next to him.
"Did Haley ever tell you about our first child?" Jimmy asked.
"Her brother?"
"No, the one before him. The one we lost," Jimmy said. Nathan shook his head. They lost a child?
"Haley's mother and I were pregnant not too long after we met. We were teenagers, kids really, and insanely overcome with our love for each other. So, we went a little too far one night before we were really ready to. And five weeks later we found out she was pregnant. I'm sure you can understand the terror I felt. Hales told me what happened when you found out Brooke was pregnant. That's close to the way I felt. Of course, I only left her for a few hours, not a week!" Jimmy said with a slight laugh.
"What happened?" Nathan asked him, curious now.
"We got used to the idea. Our parents were furious but they accepted it after a while. We got married at the court house when she was about four months pregnant. And a few weeks after that, she started bleeding really bad. It was the middle of the night and she woke up in pain. When I turned on the light, our bed was drenched in blood. I started freaking out but Lydia, she stayed calm. She insisted that I calm down and take her to the hospital. Of course, I put trash bags down in my car before she got in it!
"When we got there, the doctors and nurses took her into a room and started shouting things at each other. I hardly heard any of it. They were tossing words around like placental abruption and stillborn. I was young, just eighteen. I had no idea what they were saying. Then they all left the room. Apparently they had gotten the bleeding to stop, but it was too late. The baby was gone and there was nothing else they could do except deliver it. I don't think Lydia's ever cried so much in her life. I don't think I had either," Jimmy explained to the younger boy.
"How did you get over it? I mean, you're both so happy now. Will Brooke and I ever be that way?"
"Eventually, yes. It's not gonna happen right away Nate. I can promise you that. And it's going to hurt for a long time. But it will get better! You just have to stay strong and believe that," he said.
"But what about Brooke? She's always so angry. She told me earlier that she didn't even want to talk to me!" Nathan responded, almost in tears.
"She just needs time. I know how hard this is for you Nathan. I've been there. But I also know how hard this is for Brooke after seeing Lydia lose her child. It's harder on the mother. You just need to be there for her. Even if she says she doesn't want you there, just be there. Sit in the background so she knows it. That's all you can do. She'll come to you when she's ready," Jimmy told him, squeezing his shoulder before heading back up to Haley's hospital room.
Nathan sat there contemplating what Mr. James had said. Seeing the way he and his wife are together, you never would have guessed that they went through a tragedy like that. They were just so happy!
Nathan never put too much thought into God and prayer before. But after hearing Jimmy's story, he said a quick prayer for him and Brooke, hoping they would one day get to that point.
A/N: Like it? Hate it? Let me know!