A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 3
The gym was filled with an air of anticipation as the fans sensed that they were on the edge of another victory in their undefeated season. The Ravens were up by three points with only five minutes left in the game.
Dan sat on the edge of the bleacher, a look of concern etched on his face. Five minutes was an eternity in basketball. Games could be won and lost several times within that seemingly endless time span. One mistake could put their rival ahead on the scoreboard. Dan's shoulders tensed up as Tim threw the ball in a cross court pass to Nathan. His eyes followed Nate as his son fired off a three pointer. Smiling, Dan noted Nate's correct form and excellent release on the shot, glad to see that his constant coaching had paid off.
His smile faded as Lucas stole the ball from the other team and broke away for a dunk. The boy's vertical jump paled in comparison to his shooting ability, he noted, seeing how low Luke's dunk was compared to Nate's. As the crowd roared in approval of the move, Dan's eyes inadvertently drifted a few rows down the bleachers where Karen sat. Her dark hair shined in the bright lights of the gym, as she leaned next to her companion and whispered some reaction as her son scored.
Dan recognized her friend as a fellow booster and former classmate. A frown creased his brow, as Dan realized that Karen was becoming part of his social circle once again, despite their unspoken agreement to avoid each other. As Lucas become a central part of the team, Karen became reconnected to friends she'd written off after her son's birth. The team boosters always managed to rope all the parents into involvement, eventually Karen would be in Dan's life more than ever.
The game momentarily forgotten, Dan studied his ex-love, taking in her pleasant features. She simply did not look old enough to have a 16 year old son. Karen was as pretty now as she had been in high school, he wistfully thought. She'd always had that affect on him, leaving him speechless.
Feeling an intense feeling of scrutiny, Karen turned to see Dan staring at her, their deep blue eyes meeting for the first time in what felt like years. They locked eyes, neither willing to be the first to look away. It was a familiar battle of wills, she realized, knowing that Dan would not give her the satisfaction of looking away first, at ever balking at a challenge to his will.
As the roar of the crowd broke their reverie, the moment official was over. Dan gave her a slight node before turning his gaze back to the court, watching as the Ravens congratulated Tim for hitting a jump shot. The game teetered back and forth, both teams fighting for every advantage they could get.
Distracted, Dan missed the shoving match that was taking place between his sons on the floor. Karen grimaced, noting the tension between her son and his half brother. She'd hoped that over time the shared experience of basketball would bring the brothers together. Unfortunately, the sport had managed to become one more point of contention between Nathan and Lucas.
"Pick up the pace, loser," Nate yelled, shoving Lucas in the back, between his shoulder blades. Lucas responded by thrusting an elbow into Nate's ribs, smiling as his half brother lost some of the smirk in his expression. "What's a matter, Nate? Can't take the pressure?" Lucas shot back, pausing to grab a rebound. Nate hesitated for a second, torn between retaliating and getting to the top of the circle to play offense. He settled for giving Luke a nasty look before running to his position for the play.
Haley sat next to Keith and Anna, dismayed at the very public hatred between the two boys. How anyone could be so nasty to their own sibling was incomprehensible to Haley. While she'd grown tired of having to share everything in her life, she'd never resorted to hitting or insulting any of her siblings. She looked over at Keith who shared her look of concern. "I can't believe that they are risking the game like this," he observed, seeing Luke go out of his way to get in Nate's space on the floor. Anna took Keith's hand and gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm sure that this is just a phase," she reassured them, even as her eyes grew wide at the total hatred she read on both of his nephew's faces.
Haley stared back at the floor, as Jake drew a foul and the teams lined up for a free throw opportunity. The angry voices of the Scott Brothers momentarily hushed the crowd, drawing all attention to the court. As the boys lined up for the foul shot, Dan frowned at the interaction of Lucas and Nathan. Their words were indistinct, but it was obvious that they'd spent the last few minutes of the game focusing more on insulting each other than focusing on the game. From sideline, Whitey yelled at them, instructing them to focus on rebounding and to cut out the chatter.
Dan looked over at his former coach, as Whitey shot him a satisfied look. He'd predicted that Dan's treatment and isolation of Lucas would result in turmoil and he was right. If Danny had just tried to be nice to the boy, his sons wouldn't be making asses out of them selves in the middle of the most important game of the season. The grizzled coach turned away from his former star player and back to the court where his current stars' voices were beginning to ring out clearly above the den of the crowd's excitement.
Peyton sighed, forcing one curl to flow out of her eyes, before settling back down over her right eye once more. She watched from the baseline as her ex-boyfriend and current fling insulted one another. She glanced over at Brooke, who stared at the boys in concern, as well. They both mechanically cheered as Jake's first shot sank gracefully through the net. Neither of them felt any excitement at the carnage that was taking place in front of them.
The boy's lined up for Jake's second shot. Noticing the tension among the Raven players, a player from Lexington nudged Tim. "Are they always this bitchy?" he asked, genuinely interested if this snarkfest was for real or just a show for their benefit. Tim looked across the lane, to the other side of the line, where the Scott brothers traded insults behind another Lexington player's back.
"Why'd you take the name off your jersey? Oh wait, that's right. You don't really have a father to give you a last name, do you?" Nate tossed out, not hesitating to use Dan to hurt and belittled his brother. Tim rolled his eyes and answered the other player's question. "This is nothing compared to practice," he admitted, growing weary of the sideshow the brothers were attracted.
Jake's second shot slowly circled the rim before gently rolling through the net. Brooke jumped up and started a victory cheer, sensing that they were indeed going to pull out the victory with only a minute left and the Ravens up by four points. Her pom- poms fell limply at her side as she watched Nathan and Lucas exchange more words as they brought the ball down the court. She stopped cheering all together as her best friend passed the ball to Tim, shoving Lucas in the back as he moved toward the baseline to wait for any potential rebound.
His patience finally gone, Lucas grabbed Nate's jersey as he ran past, flinging him into one of the other team's players. The crowd came to their feet, as the boys tumbled onto the floor, a mass of flailing arms and torn jerseys. Jake shook his head in resignation as the refs and coaches rushed in to separate the gladiatorial teammates.
Dan and Karen exchanged a short glance as their sons were thrown out of the game and sent to the locker room, giving Lexington a last gasp chance with a technical penalty shot. The boys headed off to the locker room, fuming and bloody, both fully prepared for war.
The gym slowly emptied out, the parents and students alike seeking comfort in the crisp, fresh fall air. Karen said good bye to her friend and fellow booster, as her eyes landed on Keith. And that girl. She forced herself to meet their eyes, giving them a polite but tight smile. She'd not let hurt feelings color her manners. Keith smiled at her, noting that Dan was still sitting in the bleachers, and looked back at Karen with an uncertain expression. In the past, he'd have rushed to Karen's side, eager to protect her from any possible slight that she might suffer from his brother's careless behavior. Times had changed, though, and Keith merely nodded at Dan as he guided Anna out of the gym. Karen was a big girl and she could more than handle anything Dan threw at her, and given the outcome of the game and the look of anger on his little brother's face, they were definitely going to have it out.
Dan remained sitting in the stands, focusing on anything but the woman in front of him. He watched as Keith and his new girl walked slowly out of the gym, clearly reading the hesitation on his big brother's face. Dan was shocked to learn that his brother had finally started dating Karen, but it was only a short time later that they'd broken up. Town gossip didn't shed any light on what event caused the break up, but Dan wasn't surprised. As close as Keith and Karen had been growing up, they were very different personalities. His brother was simply too mellow to harness the passion that he knew Karen possessed.
He stared down at his shoes for a moment, realizing that part of their closeness was based on his abandonment of Karen and her son. Keith had managed to step up when he had run away. Dan mentally shrugged off the past, realizing that Keith had always been the better man. No argument about that, but better man or not, Dan knew that Karen would never love Keith the way she'd loved him. It wasn't just his natural arrogance that formed that notion, but the truth. Despite how twisted their relationship had become, he and Karen had spent some very happy years together. He watched as parents claimed their sons, fresh from the showers and vaguely wondered if Whitey would let Nathan and Lucas go free any time in the next hour.
He looked up and realized that his worst nightmare was coming true, and he and Karen were alone together in the very empty gym. Karen was a scant four rows in front of him, pacing back and forth along the baseline. She was upset for some many reasons, the least of which was being stranded in a gym with Dan Scott. Her anger at Lucas' behavior was momentarily overshadowed as memories from the past assaulted her. She didn't appreciate the irony that the setting was exactly the same as 16 years before, when Dan had informed her that he was leaving for school, without her and their child.
A door slammed in the distance, and footsteps broke the eerie silence that separated the former lovers. Tim walked across the shiny wood floor, uncertainly approaching the adults. Dan stood up and slowly made his way to the floor, anticipating Tim's knowledge about Nathan. "You all may want to take a seat. Whitey's on a roll in there and they aren't likely to be out for a while," he drawled, clearly uncomfortable stuck between them. Karen muttered a polite thank you, while Dan's shoulders tensed up at the thought of his son enduring one of Whitey's endless tirades. Sons. Whatever.
As the sounds of Tim's footsteps grew distant, Karen sighed, before sitting on the front row of the bleachers. She was tempted to go home and wait to yell at her son when he got there. But she'd had a long day, working two shifts at the diner and she knew the minute she got home, she'd fall asleep. Lucas wasn't stupid, she realized. He'd stay out until his curfew, knowing his mom had to get up at the crack of dawn to open the Café for the weekend breakfast rush. This was her only chance to let him know he was in for it, while her anger was still fresh.
Dan watched her for a moment, wondering if she was reliving the past and the day he'd walked out on her. He lowered his eyes, trying to find a way to express the regret that had lived inside him, regret that he had devastated the life of the woman in front of him. He'd never known how to apologize or to make amends to anyone in his life. Most of his more outlandish actions had been over looked due to his star player status. And later when his brother avoided him and his wife cajoled him into claiming his son, Dan had simply lacked the knowledge of how to approach Karen. She could be so distant and imperious at times. Dan was basically unnerved by her ability to out argue him. She didn't have to raise her voice or physically intimidate people like he did; she managed to coerce people with her tranquil aura and steel resolve.
She sat on the bleachers in a serene manner that she didn't feel, and looked up at him expectantly. "Well, this is certainly awkward," she simply stated, figuring that when in doubt, honesty worked wonders. Dan stopped pacing, and turned to face her, a smile slowly crossing his face. "Yeah, this is pretty much my idea of an ironic nightmare gone awry." Karen raised her eyebrows at him acknowledging their shared past in this very gym. "It's hard to escape the past when you keep showing up on former battlegrounds," she acknowledged, wondering why she'd ever agreed to get involved in this mess. She should have told Lucas that she wasn't able to handle the strain of being so closely tied to Dan Scott. But her son had seen Dan dominate everything in town. Perhaps this was a misguided attempt for her to show her son that his mother wasn't a helpless victim.
Dan hesitantly walked over to sit next to her on the bleachers, making sure that he wasn't too close to her, but making sure that he also wasn't leaving too much room, like he was too good to sit next to her. Karen watched in silence as he fidgeted, first with his tie and then with crossing and uncrossing his long legs. She smiled, taking some kind of perverse pleasure in knowing that she could still cause him some discomfort, just as he caused their son immense discomfort every time they were in the same room.
He suddenly turned to her with a smile on his face. "Do you remember the night that you glued Michelle Turner's pom-poms together and then convinced her that they had mange and were sick?" Karen let out a small laugh, recalling how horrified the freshman cheerleader had been, running around asking everyone how she could "make her pom-poms better". She and Dan and their crew had laughed for a weeks about that one. "She never was the brightest bulb in the socket," Karen commented, happy that Michelle was at least cute and had married well.
Karen slightly turned to where Dan sat lost in thought and smiled at her long buried memories of the good years that they had share. Karen had spent years trying to force herself to forget any memory that included Dan, good or bad. Her anger at him for leaving both her and his child was so intense that she knew it couldn't be healthy. And indeed, she'd managed to unintentionally pass that anger on to their child. Seeing the hate that Lucas carried for Dan actually scared her. She'd never wanted this for Dan and Lucas. She'd hoped that eventually Dan would see Lucas around town and show some interest in his son. Most people enjoyed being around her little boy, as he'd had a shy presence that brought out the best in everyone he met. It was only over time that his shyness turned into distance, separating him from the rest of the kids in his class.
Karen had attributed that distance to his early rejection by Dan. And that in turned had increased her own anger toward the boy's father. Despite all those feelings, Karen knew that Lucas needed resolution with Dan. He needed to understand how his own father could be so cold and remote, even as he dotted on his other son.
The sound of raised, livid voices floated out to them from the behind the locker room doors. Dan and Karen awkwardly looked at one another, realizing that their sons were once again engaged in battle. Karen closed her eyes, wishing she could block out the entire night, along with the constant arguing between her son and Dan's. "We've got to find a way to end this before they rip each other apart." Her voice was strained, reflecting the turmoil she felt about the situation.
"I don't know to fix this one, Kar," he softly admitted, reverting to his childhood name for her. The gym was rapidly becoming a constrictive tomb for Dan. He felt trapped by his poor past decisions, the woman sitting next to him, his battling sons in the other room, and a life basically filled with guilt and regret. What had begun as an attempt to keep his two sons apart in separate worlds had devolved into trench warfare, claiming victims on either sides of the war. He looked around the gym, as if in search for the answers to life's problems. "I don't know how to stop this dynamic."
She carefully evaluated him and his words. "Do you really want it fixed, Dan? Or does part of you want to keep your sons apart, so you won't be forced to deal with Lucas?" He winced at her words, knowing that had been his intent for the past 16 years. Dan had never been good with words or expressing his feelings. He wouldn't know what to say to Lucas even if the boy attempted to hear him out, just as he couldn't find the words to tell Karen how sorry he was for what he did all those years ago.
"I never thought it would turn out like this, Karen. I didn't know that everything would be so awkward all the time, that everyone in town would be staring at us like a freak show," he admitted, knowing that his leaving had affected so many people in their small circle. He just didn't know how to stop being a jerk to his oldest son. Dan swore before every game that he was going to be nice to the kid, smile at him or do something that was a departure from their usual glarefest. But every time they were in the same room some kind of altercation inevitably took place.
Dan rubbed his eyes, attempting to soothe his growing headache. The last words Deb had muttered to him on her death bed was that she wanted him to be a good father to all three of his sons. She didn't know that their baby wouldn't survive the week. But the faith she'd had in her eyes when she'd said those words haunted Dan. No matter what mistakes he'd made, she always saw the potential within him to be a good father. And reuniting him with Lucas had always been her pet project. Sighing, he looked out across the wood floor, the location where so many of his most triumphant moments in life had taken place. Yet for all that glory, he couldn't honor the last wishes of his wife, just as he couldn't say the words he needed to say to Karen or Lucas.
Karen watched him, instantly knowing that look in his eyes. One perk of having spent so much time with him growing up, she mused. Dan was a classic glutton for punishment. He always deeply regretted his stupid mistakes, but he wasn't able to say the words of remorse to lessen the other person's pain, nor could he learn from the past and stop making the same mistakes over and over. Her heart softened a bit, seeing the pain in his eyes. "What do you want, Dan? Do you want to fix the entire situation, or just get our sons to the point where they aren't getting thrown out of games?"
He looked over at her with an unusual intensity. "I want the hatred to end, Kar. It's going to be a long season, and that means you and I will be spending a lot of time together with boosters and team events. Nate and Lucas are going to destroy their season if we can't find a way to stop all the fighting. I just want things to be normal," he admitted, before they both considered his words and died laughing.
"Normal? Well, that's certainly a unique quality for this town," Karen noted, feeling the mood lighten immensely. She knew Dan well enough to know when he was lying and when he was sincere. There was a genuine look on his face that she'd not seen in a long time, not even when he'd promised her that he'd leave school for her, promising that he'd help raise their baby.
"So, we'll try to make things as normal as possible so the next few months aren't a living hell?" he tentatively asked, not sure what actually was taking place.
Karen considered his words, recalling how sad her son had been the past few months without Keith in his life. All she'd ever wanted to give her son was a father and real sense of family. If she could some way stop her son's open wound from hemorrhaging, she had to try. And constantly seeing his father around town and never speaking to him was a wound that Lucas had carried his entire life.
She nodded her head in response to his question. "But Dan, I'm warning you. If you hurt my son, I'll glue some things together that will make the pom-poms look like child's play," she sweetly said. Dan took in her words and slowly nodded, realizing that she was seriously threatening some of his various body parts. A smile broke across his face and the two shared in the joke, their laughter floating across the gym.
Lucas and Nate stood at the door to the locker room, stunned by the site of their parents sitting next to each other, laughing. The past hour had been hell, with Whitey threatening to bench them for nearly losing the game with their asinine behavior. He'd only let them go when words failed him and he'd stormed off to his office to escape the sight of them.
Anxious to get on with their social plans for the night, and eager to leave behind their shoving match, the two had quickly showered and left the locker room together in silence. Now, seeing their parents talking, the two stared at one another in shock.
"Can this night get any more bizarre?" Nathan muttered, not really speaking to Lucas but to the room in general. Karen and Dan looked up, seeing their sons approach and abruptly stopped talking. Dan smiled hesitantly at both boys, unsure of how to act around his oldest son. But he'd promised Karen he was going to try fixing things with Lucas and there was no better time to start than the present.
Lucas walked over to where Karen was now standing and gently took her elbow, staring daggers at Dan the entire time. The hesitant, tight smile that the man gave him only served to unnerve Lucas. He could deal with Dan when it came to insults and sneering looks, but this faux niceness was creeping Lucas out.
"Let's go, mom. I'm sorry to have left you all alone," he said, loud enough for Dan to hear the insult. Of course he'd consider being alone with Dan as being truly alone. The man didn't exist for Lucas on any level, except the darkest recesses of his darkest contemplations. That's the only time Luke would allow himself to wonder about what the man was like.
Karen turned and gave Dan a tiny smile, even as Nathan regarded her with suspicious eyes. He didn't like what he was seeing between these two. He didn't like it all.
Brooke bounded down the curved stair case in her home, intent on getting to Nathan's party. After checking to make sure that he was still alive to host the party, Brooke had shimmed out of her cheerleading uniform and slithered into her favorite low cut blue jeans and tight black shirt. Hearing a noise, she froze at the foot of the stairs, slowly turning around to see her mother and step-father in the expansive entryway of their colossal home. A cursory glance around the ornate space found a stack of Louis Vuitton luggage and other signs that they were back from where ever they'd been.
"Mother," Brooke neutrally greeted the older woman, taking in her face for any signs of botox or plastic surgery. She wasn't interested enough in what her mom did when she went away on these trips to ask about it, but she secretly suspected that the woman was on a desperate hunt for the fountain of youth. Almost as an afterthought, she turned and greeted her step-father. "Trey." A one word greeting for a one note man, she cynically thought.
"Brooke darling," her mother drawled out, having perfected the southern belle sorority girl sugar tone from years of practice. Brooke wanted to wince at the emptiness of the greeting and the lack of affection that formed the basis of their non-relationship. As her mother pulled back from their "pseudo" hug (one that involved minimal and potentially disheveling contact), she ran a critical eye over her daughter's form. "You aren't going out in that shirt, are you, dear? It makes you look like a linebacker through the shoulders."
Brooke wanted to wince as much from her mother's constant criticism as the eye that her stepfather was giving her. Trey obviously had less of a problem with her outfit. "She looks fine, Katherine. That's how all the girls dress these days," he explained, as his wife walked over to the mail basket to check for any party invitations that might have arrived during her absence.
Shaking her head, Brooke realized that her mother had already forgotten her. That was the woman's style: greet, criticize, withdraw. Brooke had gotten used to it the past 16 years, not having much else to fall back on. She hedged closer and closer to the door, desperately seeking escape from this mental ward she called home. All she wanted to do was get to Nate's beach house, flirt with Lucas and have some fun. This parental nightmare was definitely not on her agenda for the night.
"Brookie," a voice called out, stopping her progress toward the door. Turning, she found Trey standing entirely too close to her. "I just wanted to make sure you had enough money for tonight," he softly said, pulling a wad of bills out of his suit jacket's inner pocket. He held the money in front of her for a moment, before sliding his hand around her waist and down the back of her tight jeans. Brooke froze, unable to breathe or even call out to her mother, who was standing not ten feet away going through her mail, yet again oblivious to her surroundings.
Trey leered at her a moment, before bending over her and whispering in her ear. "I think you look hot in that outfit, don't let you mother's opinion bother you." He pulled back from her face, taking in her shocked expression. His hand remained on her ass for a moment, before dipping lower. Trey slid the wad of bills in her back pocket, squeezing her in the process, only pulling his hand away when his wife's annoyed voice carried across the marble room.
"For god's sake," Katherine's cold voice called out, jump starting Brooke's breathing process. She felt relieved that her mother had finally witnessed what a freaking creep her step-father was, and even more relieved that she was upset about her husband's inappropriate touching.
"Stand up straight, Brooke. You have the posture of a waitress," her mother commented, illustrating the proper way to hold one's shoulders back in good form. "I swear, all those years of charm school and dance lessons and you still have horrible form."
Brooke's heart dropped, realizing that her mother wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening around her, not that she ever had. Brooke slowly backed her way to the door, staring at Trey as she did so. He raised his eyebrows at her in a suggestive manner, even as he smirked at her. Brooke slowly turned and fled the house, running for the relative safety of her car.
Her hands were shaking so hard that she had to fumble with the remote several times to get the doors open. Once inside, she slammed her hand over the lock button, making sure that no one could get in the car with her. She shifted uneasily, quickly pulling the wad of money out of her pocket. She stared at it in disgust, wondering if everyone thought she was a whore who could be bought off with money. Wiping tears from her eyes, Brooke threw the money on the passenger floorboard and started her car, needing the heater to help ward off the cold that had descended over her body. Ten minutes later, she roared out of the driveway, still shaking but desperate enough to risk driving under the circumstances.
As she turned onto the road that led east to the beach, she tried to focus on traffic and not the images that kept flashing in her mind. He was going to get away with it. Trey was going to continue to stalk Brooke in her own home, under her mom's nose, no matter what she did to stop him. After all, she couldn't stop his son and she'd not be able to stop his father.
She looked up, shocked to find herself at Nate's beach house. She fretted for a moment, knowing it probably wasn't a good thing that she'd not remember a single moment of the drive. Closing her eyes, Brooke forced herself to relax, to forget about the night of her mom's wedding, trying to forget the images of her very pink room and the boy who ignored her drunken pleas to stop.
She snapped to attention, hearing someone call out her name from the house's wrap around porch. She took another deep breath and got out of the car, walking with an exaggerated swagger that she didn't feel inside. It was all about image and the outer shell that you portrayed to the world. Brooke had mastered that years ago, and fell back into robot party girl mode, safe from any thoughts that might try to surface. There were ways to forget about that night, ways to stop thinking so much about past events she couldn't change. She made her way into the house, calling out greetings to all her friends and admirers. It only took a few minutes before she had a blue plastic cup filled with some thing alcoholic. She raised the cup to her lips, smirking even as she downed it in a single gulp.
The night was still young.