There's a "bad" word at the end of the chapter. All sensitive readers ...probably aren't reading this story.

A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 43

Brooke looked into the mirror and slowly exhaled. Ignoring the sound of the girly chatter that surrounded her, she instead stared at her shoes, wondering if this night would ever end. The 20 debs had been sequestered in a room off of the main ballroom. What was normally a meeting room had been converted into a mini salon, complete with mirrors and hairspray. Brooke coughed as the girl next to her over sprayed, coating her with a thick mist of hair spray. Shooting the girl a nasty look, she grabbed her purse and made her way to a dark corner, behind a panel of floor to ceiling mirrors. Sighing, she leaned against the wall, grateful that she'd finally found a quiet spot away from all those giggling girls.

Though Brooke had been forced to socialize with them at the club and from school, she found most of them to be the worst kind of vanilla. Bland, conformists the lot of them, she thought. Opening her purse, she dug through it frantically, relaxing only when her manicured nails touched the vial inside. Ignoring her shaking hands, she pried the cap off the bottle and quickly swallowed a couple of valium that she'd stolen from her mother's industrial size medicine cabinet.

Her mother. The words caused Brooke's heart to race, despite the booze she'd consume earlier and the drugs she'd just popped. The bitch had actually followed through on her threat to bring her step brother to town to escort her to the dance. Brooke thought Katherine had been joking but the joke was on her when she'd bounded down the stairs earlier that day and run smack into the son of a bitch. J.J had leered at her a moment, before leaning over and running his hand under shirt and caressing her breasts for a moment. "How's Trix?" he asked, as she violently shoved him away from her.

Brooke closed her eyes, forcing the memory from her mind. Katherine had flown the sleaze in to town just for her "big occasion". Apparently, Lucas wasn't acceptable, but her rapist was. Rapist. The word caused her heart to pound even harder. She forced herself not to take another pill, willing herself to relax and let what was in her system take affect. All she had to do was put on her dress, walk down the aisle with her sleazy stepfather, dance with the sleazy stepbrother and then she'd find a way to sneak out of the party and get back to Lucas. Everything would be okay if she could just get to her boyfriend.

She slid down the wall and pulled her knees close to her chest. A few tears coursed down her face, smudging the making she'd painstakingly applied earlier. Eventually her heart slowed down, the panic attack averted. She rested her head on her knees and prayed the night would be over soon.

Karen flipped the sign to the Café to 'closed' and walked over to the counter where Dan was nursing his coffee. "He should be here in a few minutes," she said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Dan shrugged his shoulders, knowing that this discussion wasn't going to turn out well. Karen had waited for Lucas to meander home that morning, realizing that he was seriously late for school. Fighting the instinct to lecture and yell, she'd calmly told her son that there was going to be a family discussion that night. She didn't care if she was closing up early on a Friday night. The loss of business paled in comparison to the loss of her son. And Lucas was sliding down a path that she couldn't condone. She'd watched her parents waste away due to alcohol and she wasn't going to let that happen to her son. She was more upset about the scent of alcohol on his breath than the fact that he'd stayed out all night on a school night. She was simply terrified of alcohol.

"Karen, you can't force the boy to talk if he doesn't want to. As far as I'm concerned, we can lecture him about staying out and drinking, but he's not going to tell you why he's so angry," Dan explained, seeing the situation much clearer than Karen was. Dan's eyes focused on the floor. He knew that Luke's recent behavior was his fault. He was trying to do too much too late. And he couldn't really blame Lucas. If Dan were in the same situation, he'd be angry too. Scott's weren't known for being overly forgiving.

Karen shook her head in dismay and leaned back against the wall behind the counter for support. Things were spinning out of control that much she could tell. She just didn't know how to give her son the family he desperately craved while allowing him to vent his frustrations. "We've messed up, haven't we?" she dejectedly asked him, knowing that the answer was obvious. They'd both fed Luke's anger and unease. Karen had let her son carry the burden of her single motherhood, while Dan had simply not been there for his son.

Putting his coffee aside, Dan walked behind the counter and rubbed Karen's shoulders, trying to get her to relax a bit. "It's not going to help if you are stressed when he gets here. We both need to be very level headed and not let him push our buttons," he explained, as his hands continued to work magic on her back. Karen closed her eyes, leaning back into his massaging fingers. It was ironic that she'd spent so much time the past 16 years avoiding the man who right now offered her the greatest comfort she knew.

Dan inhaled the scent he identified as Karen, noting that she'd not changed her perfume since they were in high school. It was a heady fragrance, one that made his heart pound and his senses come to life. He continued rubbing her shoulders, taking delight in the way her smooth skin felt beneath his exploring hands. Looking down, Dan noticed Karen's firm, smooth neck and for a moment he fought the urge to kiss the space. Shaking his head, he tried to snap out of the trance she'd put him in. No matter how close they'd grown the past month, he didn't think Karen would appreciate his thoughts.

Smiling, Karen fumbled at her waist, trying to get off the apron she'd put on earlier that morning. "It's knotted," she explained to Dan, who was still standing behind her. His hands slid around her waist, coming to rest on her stomach. "Let me help," Dan murmured, letting his hands work the knotted apron cord.

Karen's senses were tingling, an electric energy traversing her body in a way that she'd not experienced in years. No other man had ever lit her senses like Dan was doing now. Giving into the intense feelings, she tipped her head to the side, inviting his eager lips. Dan wasted no time, placing gentle kisses over her satiny skin, enjoying both the taste and the softness he found there.

Pulling her back against him, Dan continued kissing her, even as his hands roved over her taunt abs. Karen's head swam a moment, completely lost in feelings that were rushing over her. She abruptly turned, staring up at his intense blue eyes. Reaching out, Dan moved a strand of her hair away from face, making eye contact with her. He felt a surreal sense of hesitation, as if things were moving in slow motion. Karen reached up and touched his check for a moment, then reached up on tip toe and kissed him, full on the lips.

Dan was only shocked a second, before he pulled Karen into his body, pressing her tiny frame against his large frame. Seizing the moment, he deepened the kiss. There was a feeling of completeness that he'd not felt in so many years. A feeling of belonging and contentment washed over Dan. He wanted this moment to last forever.

Somewhere in the back ground, Karen heard the door to the Café open. She was so caught up in Dan, on the way he made her feel, that it took angry words to snap her back to reality.

"What the fuck are you doing to my mother?" Lucas yelled, causing the two panting adults in front of him to jump apart.

EWWWWWWWWWWWW! Adult people groping!!!! Yeah, so I guess we can talk about Karen's head on a platter again. I know there are some strong feelings about Karen and Dan but try not to burn them in effigy yet. For the Brooke lovers, you'll be getting a lot of it in the next few chapters.