Thanks for the awesome reviews! It's always good to know that the writing really compels people to reply. I also love that people get invested in the storyline.

A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 26

Nate carefully navigated the rose trellis at the end of the portico of Brooke's house. He'd done this for years, sneaking into her room and waiting for her to sneak out to meet him. He stumbled in the moonless night, wishing that the second floor of the massive house had some lights on to help him as he lightly treaded toward her room across the top of the house's portico.

Sliding open the French door to Brooke's room, he glanced around, squinting in the low light from the bathroom. Hearing a muffled gasp, he turned toward the corner of the room and saw his friend curled up, knees tucked into her chest, sobbing. He quickly moved to her side, knocking over the liquor bottle that spun away from them across the cold black and white floor. He stared at the bottle a moment before sliding down to sit next to her. He groped for her hands in the room's low lighting and was shocked at how cold and clammy they were, and how her entire body was shaking like an impending earthquake.

"Brooke, what happened?" he gently asked, knowing that she'd been less than forthcoming in the past six months. Their once easy conversation was strained by some force he didn't quite know or understand. Hearing her hiccup, Nate stood up and made his way to her bathroom, intent on finding her something non alcoholic to drink. The little yellow pills scattered across her white marble vanity drew his attention instead. Grabbing the bottle, Nate stalked out to where his friend sat, still huddled in the corner of her room.

"How of many of these did you take, Brooke?" he asked, his tone both forceful and frightened. He didn't know much about medication but he knew taking valium and drinking tequila was not a great way to end a night.

She looked up at him, her lithe body still shaking. "Two," she managed to squeak out, still freaked out by the fight with her parents. The valium had taken the edge off her panic but she was still unable to breathe deeply or stop her heart from racing.

"So you thought you'd helped the valium along by downing a pint of tequila?" He was growing angry with this situation. Not because his friend was in trouble but because Brooke was in so much pain, pain he couldn't elevate or fix. "It's dangerous to mix booze and pills, Brooke. They taught us that in health class last year," he said, grabbing a black chenille throw from the foot of her bed and wrapping it around her shoulders.

She visible gulped at his words, knowing she was being reckless. "I just wanted the pain to stop, Nate. I don't think I can handle this anymore," she explained, knowing that she lacked the words to describe the situation to her best friend. Brooke couldn't say the words to herself let alone to a man. And after their shared past and current friendship, that's all Nate was: a man just like J.J. and Trey.

He lifted her chin so she was forced to look into his very blue eyes. "What's going on in this house, Brooke? What's driving you to take pills and drown your sorrows in booze and sex?" It was the question that had been on his mind for the past six months.

Her lower lip quivered, fighting some demon that he couldn't see or protect her from. "Just get me out of this house," she pleaded, not capable of staying there another minute.
Nate started to argue with her but caught a fleeting glance of something in her eyes…fear. She wasn't just upset about some fight with her mother, Brooke was terrified of something in this house.

Helping her stand up, he wrapped the black throw around her shoulders, hoping to stop the chills that still coursed through her body. He stopped and suddenly looked around. "What happened to the pink princess room?" he asked, not really noticing before how she'd redecorated her room in stark black and white. Gone was the frilly pink canopy bed and the pink carpet and drapes. This room was …hard, he decided. All angles and stark contrasts.

Brooke swayed a moment, unsteady on her bare feet. She slowly looked up at him and said, "That princess doesn't exist anymore. This isn't a fairytale." Nate looked at her for a moment, before nodding and guiding her out the door.

Lucas trudged up the steps to his house and made his way toward his door. Though it was early fall, the nights had gotten colder and he regretted having walked all the way across town in only a t-shirt. Maybe that was the point, he thought. He and Brooke were too geographically challenged to be dating. At least if he dated a girl from his side of town he'd not have to walk so far after getting thrown out of her house. Okay so maybe Brooke's parents hadn't thrown him out, but he was unwelcome just the same.

He paused a moment, wondering what he'd done in his short life to deserve the kind of universal scorn from the residents of Tree Hill. Or why Dan Scott seemed to be acceptable by the town when he'd abandoned his pregnant girlfriend and never supported his child. Luke shrugged off the vagaries of the situation and pushed his door open, seeking the sanctuary of his room. He flipped the light on and jumped when he realized that Karen had been sitting at his desk, waiting for him in the dark.

"You're home right on time," she dryly noted, realizing that the library closed at 9pm and the walk home would have only taken him 15 minutes. Her shoulders relaxed a bit, realizing that her son was trying to follow her rules. Karen wasn't sure when she'd gotten so suspicious about Luke's actions.

He watched her for a moment, before dropping on his bed. "What's next, a surveillance bracelet so you can monitor my movements?" Luke had had a bitch of a day and he certainly wasn't in the mood to rehash the horrible dinner with Dan.

She raised an eyebrow at his tone, gently reminding him that she'd not be talked to that way in her own home. "I don't consider making sure that you are safe at home on a school night at a decent hour surveillance," she reminded him, her voice full of reproach at his disrespectful attitude.

Lucas ignored her critique and moved around the room, removing his shoes and preparing for bed as if she weren't there. She watched him silently for a moment, knowing that he was so upset he'd lost the ability to articulate his anger.

"I'm not going away, Lucas. Eventually, you'll have to talk to me about the Dan situation," she said, noticing how his shoulders immediately tensed up under his faded blue t-shirt.

He slowly turned to face her. "There wouldn't be a Dan situation if you weren't intent on forcing him down my throat," he evenly replied, knowing that anger would only get him grounded again.

"Lucas," she slowly began, before he cut her off.

"You can do whatever you want with Dan and Nathan, but you can't force me to be anything other than coldly polite and distant. That's it, Mom. You might have gotten over your anger toward him, but I haven't. And it's my anger, Mom, not yours to absolve at will," he simply stated, before leaving her standing alone in his bedroom.

She watched him go, sinking down to his small bed in the stillness that remained. It would all work out, she mused. She just had to remain firm in her conviction that the best gift she could give her son was that of peace and forgiveness.

He just needed time, she reasoned.

Sighing, Nathan dropped his keys on his desk and turned to where Brooke was huddled on his bed. "Okay, what's going on?" he asked, having had his fill of sneaking in and out of houses for the night. Intrigue was great for a short term adrenaline rush but he could do without the drama and mystery that seemed to cling to his best friend.

She lowered her head and stifled a sniffle. She didn't have the energy to do this tonight. Between sneaking around with Lucas and fighting with her parents, she was emotionally tapped out and had been for months now. "Nate, I want to tell you. I do. But I can't do this tonight," she confessed, her hazel eyes tearing up at the idea of some late night confessional. The valium had kicked in and she loved the soft nothingness that enveloped her body and mind.

"You can't keep running from this, Brooke. Whatever it is is going to bite you in the ass eventually," he offered, knowing his plea fell on deaf ears. What ever trauma that had exposed the vulnerable side of Brooke had passed, leaving behind the cold, remote figure he'd come to know in the past six months.

"I know, Nate. Believe me when I tell you that I can't escape this, it keeps growing and morphing into a monster I can't slay." Nate sat down on the edge of his bed, stunned at the simply declaration of defeat. Brooke always found a solution to problems that they encountered in daily life. She wasn't one to give in and concede defeat. Dan had once mentioned that he'd kill to have Brooke on his sales staff because she never took 'no' for an answer. And yet here was his indomitable friend, throwing in the towel.

"Just tell me what's going on and you'll feel better," he cajoled, trying anything to get her to talk. Despite the frantic late night calls for help and the endless sleep overs when she was avoiding home, perhaps the scariest change in his friend was the silence that had hijacked her normally chatty personality.

She looked up at him, weighing what she thought he could handle and what she thought would change their relationship forever. "Do you remember when we were talking about Indiana and the caste system in sociology last year?" she suddenly asked. "Remember they had that group called the 'untouchables' that no one in society wanted to see or interact with?"

His brow furled in confusion, not sure where she was going with this conversation. "Um, I think that was India, Brooke, not Indiana."

Brooke grew impatient at his interruption, never having been good with the finer points of school. "India…Indiana, whatever," she said, rushing him through his confusion. "This class was considered so unclean that they couldn't even do their jobs within sight of the other castes."

Nate watched her for a moment, unsure what she was getting at. "Brooke, what does this have to do with tonight?" He knew he wasn't as touchy feely as Lucas was, but he was trying to decode her girl language.

She pulled her knees back toward her chest, curling in on herself. "I don't want to talk about it, Nate. It makes me feel unclean, like one of the untouchables. What if I tell you and you don't want me to be your friend any more?"

The stark vulnerability in her voice stabbed at his heart. He wasn't used to feeling helpless and uncertain. Those weren't Scott family traits. But watching the tears form in her eyes as she watched his reaction tore at his soul. Something was going on that was so serious she feared their friendship if it got out. He strained for a second, mentally trying to put pieces of the past few months into a frame.

"Brooke, is your stepfather hurting you?" he asked, not sure if his hunch was correct or not. He'd never liked Trey, but the man had never said or done anything to raise his suspicion. He just didn't like something about the guy's oily nature. But the time frame was indisputable. The drinking, the sex and the late night visits all increased after her mother had married that guy, he calculated. But he'd not seen any bruises on her during that time and he wasn't sure what was causing the fear that was becoming embedded in her eyes.

Brooke sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I can't do this tonight, Nate. I just want to get some sleep." He realized it was late and she really was emotionally worn out. "Okay, let's get you a shirt and some sweats and into the guest room," he said, conceding that she wasn't going to tell him anything revealing tonight. He had to respect her boundaries and she clearly wasn't capable of any more turmoil tonight.

She stood up and accepted a pair of too large flannel pants and an old basketball shirt. "Uh, would it be okay if I just stayed in here tonight," she asked in a small voice, knowing that she'd not done that in years. She caught his questioning glance and averted her eyes. "I just don't want to be alone tonight. I'll feel safer if I'm near you."

He leaned back against his dresser, not sure how to react. It's not like he had any romantic feelings toward her, not after all the years of friendship, but she was still a very girly girl. Sighing, he walked over to his bed and fluffed his extra pillow. "Come on," he said, holding up the down comforter for her.

Dan shut off the lights in his office and headed up the stairs, ready for bed after a long night of working at home. The work was just a distraction from the situation with Lucas. He was afraid if he stopped to think that he'd end up reconsidering the entire deal he had going with Karen. It was just too much work to fight with both his sons at the same time.

He walked down the hallway intent on getting to the master suite and going to sleep, when he noticed the light that crept out from under Nate's door. Nate tended to fall asleep with every electronic device he owned powered on, be it the TV, the lights or his stereo. Dan leaned in the room and paused as he took in the sleeping figures wrapped up in covers on opposite sides of the bed. Taken aback, he lingered, as if to reaffirm the sight of his son sleeping in bed with his female best friend. Dan squinted, seeing what he could only assume were black smears of mascara tracks under the girls eyes, her make up smeared against her delicate features. Someone had not had a good night, he surmised.

Flipping the light off, Dan pulled the door gently behind him, not wanting to wake the kids up. He'd have to have a discussion with his son in the morning about overnight guests. It was one thing for Brooke to crash in their house, but it was an entirely different matter for her to sleep in Nate's bed. As he made his way into his own room, he paused, remembering Brooke's face with her smeared make up and swollen eyes. Something was going on in this house of hers and he needed to get to the bottom of it.

As Dan closed his eyes that night, the last thought he had was that Lucas was going to freak out if he found out that his girlfriend was sleeping in his brother's bed. Yet another battle to rip the brothers apart, he mused.

Thanks for reading. Replies are always welcomed and may remind me to post another chapter this weekend.

In the next few chapters:

Nate and Luke don't fight

Dan talks to everyone

Brooke avoids her demons, again