A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 31

Brooke shoved a vase of flowers on the counter at the nurses station and blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes, pleased that she'd managed to carry the flowers this far without dropping them.

"Brooke!" A rotund nurse called out, smiling at her favorite candy striper. "We've not seen you for a few days."

Brooke smiled sweetly at the lady, not wanting to tell the nurse that she only volunteered because her mother forced her to. Apparently, part of her stupid cotillion was community service. Brooke and the other debs spent one afternoon a week handing out magazines and spreading good cheer to the various wards of Tree Hill Hospital. Brooke hated hospitals. She wasn't sure what she thought about old people, except that the entire floor depressed her to no end. Some of the other girls had gotten the maternity ward, which creeped her out even more. Babies and old people definitely were not her demographics.

"I've had school and cheering the past few days," she replied, keeping her cheer smile firmly fixed to her face. She was, after all, accustomed to faking her way through the adult world. She absently pulled the stupid candy striper jumper, humiliated at being seen in such an ugly outfit. "What are you up to?" she asked, leaning over the counter where Nurse Fitzpatrick sat, watching as her less than nimble fingers danced across the computer keyboard.

The nurse sighed and flexed her hands a moment. "I'm entering records into the new computer system. All the old paper files are getting put online so that doctors can access a patient's past history with the click of a mouse."

Brooke's eyes widened with interest. "So you'll be able to find out any information about any patient that has ever been treated here?" she asked, her heart beating with increased excitement with each passing moment.

Nurse Fitzpatrick smiled up at her. "It's a treasure trove of information." Brooke smiled at her triumphantly, seeing the possibilities in that simple computer. "Well, I need to get these flowers to Mrs. Burns in 317," she said before bouncing off down the hall. This gig at the hospital was certainly more interesting than she thought, frowning as a hacking cough interrupted her glee. She needed some place quiet to plot...

Ignoring the clatter of the dinner rush, Karen stared at her son in dismay. "I just bought those pants for you last year. How could they be so short?" she asked, walking around her son. His only suit consisted of pants 3 inches too short and a jacket that was so tight he couldn't move his shoulders.

She realized Lucas wasn't paying attention to her, as he was busy staring at the door to the Cafe. Dan hovered there a moment, uncertain about intruding on Karen and their son. He eventually made his way over, smirking at Lucas. "Nice pants, Urkel," he joked, losing the battle to not ridicule the kid's much too short pants. He stopped smirking at the look of anger on his son's face. "It was a joke, Lucas."

His joke having fallen flat, Dan turned toward Karen and shrugged. He was trying to be normal around the boy, but every shared moment between them just made them both more tense and anxious about the other. "I guess that didn't go over well," he said to Karen, knowing full well that Lucas was listening to every word he said.

"What's he doing here? It's not Monday," Lucas asked, trying to minimize his ridiculous outfit. His mom had made him bring his suit over "just in case" he'd grown. And now they were both slightly panicked that he had no suit to wear and a wedding to attend in three days. Karen was not only dreading the wedding, but the damage that the bill from
a new suit would do to her weekly budget.

"Dan is free to stop by whenever he wants to, Lucas," she reprimanded, shooing him toward the back room in the process. "Go change. This suit isn't going to grow anytime soon." Even if she let the pants out, the jacket was impossibly small for his growing frame.

Giving Dan the evil eye, Lucas headed for the back room and the relative safety of his favorite worn out jeans and hoodie. Dan watched him go, a look of sadness on his face. "I didn't mean to upset him, Kar," he said, his eyes following every move his son made as he walked toward the storeroom of the Café. "I try to be serious, he ignores me. I try humor and he gets offended." Dan was trying but the boy was nearly impossible to deal with.

She motioned him over to the counter and poured him some coffee. "I know you weren't trying to upset him, Dan. He's just super sensitive when it comes to every word you say," she explained, knowing that father and son had a long way to go before they communicated effectively.

She sighed and leaned against the counter for a moment. It wasn't even the dinner rush and her feet were already killing her. And now she had to try to fit in shopping for a new suit. "I just don't know when I'll be able to get to the store to help him buy a new suit."

Dan's coffee cup stopped mid sip. "Could he go by himself?" he hopefully asked.

Karen snorted at his words and motioned toward the storeroom where Lucas was changing. "I think you've seen my fashion plate of a son. The one who refuses to wear anything not made of 100 cotton? If I send him out by himself, god knows what he'll return with."

"I could take him," Dan suggested, shocking Karen with his words. "What? This is suit shopping and god knows I own more than any man in town," he said, gesturing to his grey worsted wool suit jacket. Dan realized he was growing desperate. He wasn't a huge fan of shopping but he realized that Karen had her hands full with work.

She listened to his argument and was crumbling. Haley was off and her other main waitress had called in with a sick child. Karen was completely incapable of making an employee with child care issues come to work. And so she faced the dinner rush with a cook and a new waitress that barely knew how to fill water glasses. Taking an hour off to get Luke a new suit seemed like an impossible task. "Lucas would kill me if I sent him with you," she started, only to be cut off by Dan.

"Karen, he's got to get used to me some day. I can tell you are busy with work and we both know that even if you get a suit tonight, you'll have to wait for alterations to be done. At this point, if he has anything to wear to the wedding, you'll be lucky," he finished, knowing he'd made a good point at last.

Lucas walked up to the counter at that moment and stared at her expectantly. "So what are we going to do about the suit thing?" he asked, pointedly ignoring Dan's existence. His eyes narrowed at his mother's reaction to his words. Something was definitely afoot at the Circle K. "Mom?" he prompted. This wasn't looking good at all, he thought, seeing a wary look in his mom's eyes.

She slowly approached him, knowing that he was going to throw a fit. "I can't take you to get a suit, Lucas. Haley's out and I can't miss the dinner rush," she started, before he cut her off. "Mom, I have to get some kind of suit tonight or I won't have anything to wear to the wedding."

Karen moved closer to where he stood near the end of the counter. "I don't have the time to go with you so Dan is going to take you to get a suit and then bring you back here to help me out."

The words sank into his conscious slowly. He simply was not hearing his mother say those words to him. He looked up at her. "Mom, just give me your credit card and let me get the suit myself," he offered, seeing no reason for Dan Scott inserting himself into this issue.

Karen smiled and patted her son on the head. "I love you Lucas, but your taste in clothing sucks. Dan is good at picking out suits. He'll get you all outfitted for a perfect wedding and you'll be back here in a few hours. "

"No," Lucas firmly said, giving his mother a firm but angry look. "I'm not going anywhere with him and you can't make me." He was being petulant and he knew it but Lucas absolutely refused to be trapped with the man he hated most on earth.

Karen grabbed the order that appeared in the window and quickly delivered it to her customer, silently bemoaning Haley's night off. She came back to the counter to deal with her son as Dan stood uncertainly behind her. This wasn't exactly his idea of a fun outing either, but he was hoping if he could just step into situations where he was needed, that Lucas might relax a few minutes and let his guard down around his father.

She turned to face Lucas. "Well, then you aren't going to the wedding in a suit. I'm stuck here, son. And I can't close down my business for the dinner rush because you won't be mature enough to let Dan help me out." Silence descended over the three, as Lucas refused to open his mouth for fear of what he'd say.

She sighed and shook her head. "Lucas, I'm dead tired, my feet are killing me and I still have three hours of the dinner rush. I'm sorry to ask you to do this, but I don't have the energy to fight with you. It's either Dan or no suit for the wedding." She'd always tried to give Lucas options when he was a child. But as a single mother she'd had some fairly grim options to offer him. He didn't get elaborate birthday parties as a kid nor did he get fancy vacations or Christmas gifts. But he did always have a devoted mother who gave him all her time and love. And that would just have to carry them through this situation.

"That's like having no choice at all," he spat out, furious that Dan was wiggling his way into his life on a daily basis now.

Karen looked up at him sadly. "You're going to find that many of our decisions in life aren't always pleasant, Luke. But there all we have. So, either suck it up and go with Dan or explain to Keith that you couldn't stomach hanging out with his brother long enough to get something to wear to his wedding."

That was low, even for Karen. She was using Luke's love of Keith to get him to go with Dan. But she was truly not going shopping tonight. And Dan was right about the alterations. They would be lucky if they could get anything tailored in the few days they had left.

Lucas silently brushed past her and headed for the door. As he passed Dan, he muttered, "I hate you," and then stood expectantly by the door, waiting for his father to follow. Dan looked at Karen and smiled a moment, before grabbing his keys and following Lucas out to his SUV.

Brooke waited for a shift change before making her way up to the nurse's desk again. "Hi Sarah!" she called out to the younger nurse behind the desk. The girl looked up and smiled at Brooke. "Brooke! How are things in deb land?" she asked, knowing that the girl wasn't exactly volunteering for her health.

Leaning against the counter, Brooke gave her a conspiratorial eye. "Not as good as things in hospital land. Have you seen Dr. Burch tonight?" she asked, the lilt in her voice automatically gaining the nurse's attention. "Did he say anything about me?" she asked, grasping Brooke's hand in excitement.

Brooke had spent most of the night convincing the cute young intern to ask out the sexy nurse on the 3rd floor. She'd finally wrangled a 8:30 coffee break for them in the cafeteria. "He's going to be waiting downstairs in the cafeteria for you. You need to go now!" Brooke said, fluffing the girl's hair and doing a make up check for her. She couldn't help but want her to land the sexy doctor, knowing that it would mean a nice future for both of the adults.

The nurse's smile faded as she gestured back to the desk. "I can't leave the floor while everyone's in the staff meeting," she explained to Brooke. The candy striper just smiled and pushed her toward the elevator. "It's a ten minute break," Brooke explained to her. "I've answered the phones before and I can tell anyone looking for you that it's that time of the month and you've got female issues." No one, especially doctors or male supervisors EVER got involved with female issue excuses. God knows Brooke had used them since she was old enough to get out of gym class.

As the elevator door closed, Brooke slid behind the computer terminal, intent on her mission. She'd watched the nurse on the other shift enter enough records that she knew what keys to press to retrieve information. At the prompt sign she typed "Lucas Eugene Scott" and waiting for the information to fill the screen.