A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 62
Flipping through a magazine, Brooke tapped her foot to the gentle beat that wafted out of her stereo and across the room. As a girl, she'd found that the cavernous room didn't seem so empty if she filled it with music and objects. She glanced over at her doll house, refusing to relegate it to the attic, despite her mother's complaints that it was childish and marred the decorator's work. It was a part of her life when things were relatively nice and she didn't want to give up hope that the little girl who played with those dolls wasn't lost forever.
She jumped, hearing the door to her bedroom slam open. Realizing it was just her mom, she relaxed for a moment until Trey followed his wife into the room. Brooke leaned against her black headboard, forcing herself not to panic with Trey so close to her bed. She'd successfully locked him out of her room with the deadbolt lock, but he'd just moved his lecherous behavior to other parts of the house.
Katherine threw papers at her daughter, in full hissy fit. "What the hell are you doing running around town getting arrested with that . . . boy?" she spit out, completely unable to actually say Luke's name.
Brooke's shoulders slumped, realizing that her mother must have finally talked to Dan about those pesky police encounters. She raised her eyebrow at her mother and attempted to clarify. "We were never arrested, just detained."
Not appreciating her daughter's sarcasm, she continued on her rant. "It's that boy. He's totally corrupting you," Katherine rationalized, knowing that while Brooke lacked intelligence and ability, she certainly was never a juvenile delinquent. "You will stop seeing him this instance."
Brooke tossed her magazine on the floor, bored by her mother's constant insults toward her boyfriend. "I'm not going to stop seeing him. Luke's about the only good thing in my life," she firmly stated, giving her mother a look that bordered on loathing.
Trey smiled at her refusal to back down. He'd always like feisty girls and Brooke was just as feisty as they made them. Brooke noticed him staring at her cleavage and discreetly pulled at the v-neck of her shirt.
Katherine's eyes narrowed in disgust at her words. "If you won't stop seeing him, then I'm sending you away," she firmly announcement, getting both the attention of her daughter and husband. "That lovely little convent boarding school in Kentucky has already confirmed your spot in next semester's class," she snidely confided to her daughter. "Of course I had to make a sizable donation to get you admitted with so little notice, but I'm sure the good Sisters will be more than happy to have some extra time to save your worthless soul". Part of Katherine was happy to send this failure away. A few idle threats might just turn her daughter around.
Brooke's heart lurched at her mother's words. Being sent away meant not being able to see Luke, or feel his strong arms around her. Lucas was the only person on the planet who really cared for her and it was nearly impossible to think about life without him.
"I won't go," she confidently replied, knowing that she could always weasel her father into sending her enough money for an apartment, or worse, convince him that she needed to live with him. Anything was better than a school where they made you wear ankle length skirts and cardigan sweaters.
Katherine smiled smugly at her. "I spoke with your father last week. I told him about your little show at the debutant ball and the incidents with the police. He feels that this boy has an undue influence over you and that school would be a good place for you to reconsider hanging out with scum from the bad part of town." Her words were deliberately malicious, calculated to cause as much damage as possible. Brooke knew that her boyfriend's address wasn't his fault. And for all of Karen's disdain, Brooke could tell that she was an involved mother who actually cared for her son, unlike either of her parents.
She looked up at her mother and her sniveling step-father. "I hate both of you. You're both cold hearted, miserable human beings and you can't stand that some one actually has love in their life." Turning to address her mother specifically, "You'll never stop what Luke and I have. It's stronger than your hate." She jumped off the bed and ran out the door, ignoring the vicious words her mother threw after her. The massive grandfather clock in the marble entryway struck midnight, as she threw open the door and ran. She didn't care that she had no keys and no money. She knew where she was going. And nobody was going to stop her.
Karen leaned her head against the toilet as the latest wave of nausea passed. Dan, who had managed to fold his large frame into the small bathroom, pulled her hair away from her face and passed her a cold wash clothe. He was concerned about the morning sickness. It had lasted much longer than it should have and it seemed to sap what little strength Karen had left. He panicked a moment; remember another pregnant woman who he'd watched fade away. Shaking the image of his wife from his mind, he rubbed Karen's shoulders and tried to comfort her the best that he could.
"I'm glad that we went to see that expert," he commented, examining her as she leaned back against the wall. She was pale but otherwise looked okay. He shifted a bit, trying to give her as much room as possible in the impossibly small bathroom. Dan realized that Karen had done a good job finding a nice house in a modest neighborhood. The crime rate was low even though she lived near some of the more destitute parts of Tree Hill. Still, he found the two bedroom, one bathroom house to be a bit confining. His own house had five bathrooms and had more room to stretch out. He'd always felt confined by any structure he'd lived in. It was his nature to want more.
Even with the couple taking over the bathroom most nights, Lucas had still found a way to avoid Dan any time he was in the house. Dan wouldn't put it past the boy to use the bathroom outside just to avoid going near him. Karen had tried to coax him out to watch a movie or to go over some of the discussions about custody once the baby was born, but Lucas had refused. They'd eventually given up even trying to get him out of his bedroom. A frown crossed his face as he recalled Luke's problems.
Karen stared up at him and noticed the look of concern on his face. "What's up, Dan?" He glanced down at her, always surprised that she could read him like a book. Sighing, he looked down at the gleaming white tile. He had to start trusting Karen enough to tell her the truth. It had been his Achilles heel when they were younger and he desperately wanted to be better than he was at 18.
"It's Lucas," he slowly stated, not anxious to start this conversation with a woman who'd been suffering morning sickness for two months. "He's been having some trouble in town."
Unnoticed in the hallway, Lucas leaned around the corner, eavesdropping as much as he could without being seen or making the old hardwoods squeak in protest.
Karen cringed, knowing that he'd been hiding something from her. "What's he done now and how much alcohol did it involve?" She wasn't blind. Karen knew her son was acting totally out of character. She'd just been exacerbated that her lectures and groundings did nothing to stop Brooke's influence. Lately, she'd been lucky to make it the Café for a few shifts each day. Fighting with her son was something that she physically could not do.
"I didn't want to tell you because you've had such a hard time with the baby, I didn't want to stress you out," he began before she brusquely cut him off.
"Dan, you don't have the right to withhold information from me," she insisted, but lacking the will to argue with him. "What did he do?"
"He's had a few run ins with the police," Dan slowly began, knowing that the truth would devastate her. "He and Brooke have been picked up a few times for public intox. There was also an incident where prescription drugs were involved."
Karen slowly closed her eyes but not before a tear coursed its way down her cheek. Part of her knew that Lucas was getting into trouble. He was so radically different from the boy she'd known just a few months ago. "Was he arrested?"
Dan shook his head. "Chris let them go without pressing charges. But he told me that we've got to get Luke some counseling or something." Dan hated to think that he'd pushed his kid into seeing a shrink but part of him wondered if it might help them all to have Lucas talk to someone. Nathan was adjusting to the idea of a new sibling and a changing family life but Lucas seemed to be reeling from the constant changes in his life.
She leaned against his shoulder for a moment, happy to let someone help her carry the burden. "Did he give you a reference to someone who might help?" She knew that Chris had problems with one of his kids and the boy seemed fine now. "Maybe having someone outside the family to talk to would help."
Lucas leaned back against the wall, rolling his eyes at the mere suggestion that talking would help things. As far as he was concerned, the only thing that would make things better was if Dan disappeared from the face of the earth. Just the thought of being forced to see a shrink pissed Lucas off even more.
Dan gently held Karen's hand, realizing that this bout of cookie tossing had abated for the moment. "We need to get you back to bed," he decided, gently picking her up off the floor before she could protest. Her tiny body fit neatly in his strong arms. He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead as he made his way toward her bedroom. "It'll be okay, Kar. I just know things are going to be okay." It was the mantra he repeated every day, no matter how fierce hurricane Lucas grew.
Lucas ducked back down the hall and quietly crept into his room. The site of Dan and Karen together always tore at his heart, but seeing Dan hold his mother was a revelation for him. The man actually looked like he cared about something other than basketball, Nathan and money. He'd watched them go down the hall before disappearing behind his mother's bedroom door. His heart clenched at the thought of them alone in her room. While Dan had stayed the night before, he'd been a conspicuous presence in the living room when Luke had woken up the next day. Apparently, Dan had graduated to his mother's bed.
He'd gotten past the last few months by telling himself that Dan and Karen had a momentary lapse of reason and the pregnancy was just dumb luck that had brought them together. Now he was truly concerned. The two people on that bathroom floor were not strangers brought together by sex. They seemed to have a past and present that Lucas couldn't quite wrap his mind around. He didn't understand this situation. He didn't WANT to understand it.
A quiet tapping on his door broke his reverie. He opened the door and saw a flushed and anxious Brooke on his doorstep. He pulled her into a hug, nestling his face into her long auburn hair. "What's wrong?" he asked, pulling away. He instantly knew something serious had happened by the shaking of her small body.
Taking a deep breath, Brooke fumbled her way across his room and sank slowly on his bed. She'd been so upset that she'd run across town at midnight to find Lucas. Part of her just wanted to drain the adrenaline that was in her system, the other half had not wanted to risk running into her step-father to retrieve her car keys from her bedroom.
His concern grew at the panicked look in her eyes. "Did something happen with your step-father?" he asked, knowing that he'd barely scratched the surface on that issue. He'd always had a bad feeling about Trey but the expression on her face confirmed that his speculation had hit close to home.
Sniffling, she buried her face into her hands and shook her head. "It's my mother. She found out about the run ins with the police," she finally muttered, looking up at where he stood rooted to the hardwood floor. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she recanted the story of the argument with the wicked witch of the south. "She's threatening to send me away to boarding school."
Luke gulped some air, fighting to control the panic he felt welling up inside him. "She didn't mean it, Brooke. She's just trying to scare you." He put all the conviction he could muster into those words, knowing that they weren't true. Brooke's mother would more than likely be thrilled to get rid of any maternal obligations society might expect from her. Luke knew that Katherine didn't really like Brooke, just like Dan couldn't stand him. It was the one common bond that Nathan could never share with Brooke.
Brooke shook her head. "She threw a brochure at me, Lucas. She said she's already enrolled me for the spring semester," she confided, horrified by the robotic girls in tacky uniforms that had adorned the cover of the brochure. Her mother and grandmother had gone away to school their senior year, but it had been to a Swiss finishing school, not some god awful country convent.
He sank down beside her, clinging to her in a way that bespoke of his desperation. Brooke was the only person who understood him, the only person who loved him first, before any other person. Keith had Anna and the new baby and his own mother had ditched him for Dan and the Satan spawn. Lucas knew that if Brooke left town, he'd have little to no reason to get out of bed anymore.
Brooke looked away in anguish, not wanting to stay but fearing the loss of the only person who truly loved her. Part of her realized that this was the best option. Her father didn't want anything to do with her and her home in Tree Hill could never be safe as long as Trey was around. If she didn't leave, he'd eventually hurt her like his son had. She clenched her fist, remembering her vow to never be hurt like that again. Going away to school could give her freedom from that fear. But it would tear her away from the only affection she'd ever known.
Lucas pulled her closer to him, attempting to make her feel better. "I can go with you," he suddenly said.
Brooke pulled away and smiled at him, her dimples accentuated by the low light of the room. "It's a school for girls, silly."
Lucas shrugged at her words. "I like girls." He pulled away from her and shifted on the bed so he faced her. "I wouldn't mind getting out of this town myself." It could be a fresh start for him, as well as for Brooke.
Something in his tone piqued her interest. She struggled to understand what he was saying. "What do you mean?"
"Why can't I follow you to school? I could get a place in town and sneak over to see you when ever possible," he proposed. It might not be as good as seeing each other in school every day, but it was certainly better than never seeing her at all.
Brooke shook her head in confusion at his words. "Are you talking about leaving town? Your parents would never let you do that."
Something akin to anger crepted across his lovely face, deepening the frown lines that had become common place. "Who says I'll ask them?" he retorted. "At this point my mom would probably be happy if I left town." It was hard to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He WAS bitter about the entire situation.
His meaning finally dawned on Brooke. "Are you talking about running away?" she finally asked.
Running a hand down her check, Lucas attempted to still his own beating heart. "Why not? That way I can be with you and get away from them."
Pulling away, Brooke considered the implications of such actions. "They'd immediately know you followed me and they'd just come and get you."
Lucas leaned back against his headboard and stared at her for a moment. "I don't think they'd go to that kind of effort. I think my mom would be relieved if I wasn't in the picture anymore." Lucas had become an outsider to this group of people now claiming to be family. He had no place here where he fit in, so why not go with the one person who cared for him?
She knew that things in the Scott/Roe family were tense, but Brooke would never have thought Luke capable of saying those words until that moment. He gave her a sad smile. "I'm just causing problems, Brooke. She has the chance to have her perfect, all American family and I'm just in the way." He shut his eyes for a moment, trying to stop the inevitable tears that were about to form. It was the truth, though. Karen finally had everything she'd always wanted in life. And Lucas couldn't accept it. He'd be doing them all a favor if he just disappeared.
Brooke moved next to him and leaned back against the headboard. "What would you do to survive? You can't leave town and get a job without being traced . . . can you?" She wasn't really up on Runaway 101. But she did know that they'd have a better chance if they disappeared together, to an unknown spot.
"I'll find a way to survive. I always have," he murmured as his eyes slowly lowered. Lucas pulled Brooke closer to him, determined not to lose the only thing in his life that made sense.
Karen polished off another cracker, satisfied that her stomach was finally settling down for the night. She was upset at how out of control her life was spinning. A new baby at 34, a son that seemed hell bent on self destruction, and a man who held her hair back when she threw up, but who had his own life apart from hers.
Dan moved about her, fluffing pillows and brushing cracker crumbs from her quilt. He wanted to make sure she was comfortable. Her small voice drew his attention. "Dan, do you think you can stay tonight?" she quietly asked, feeling the need for his presence.
He smiled down at her and ruffled her hair. "Of course I can stay," he quickly replied, embarrassed at how happy he was to be wanted. He grabbed a comforter from the chest at the end of her bed and slowly spread it out on the floor beside her bed. Her arm reached out and stopped him. "You don't have to sleep on the floor, Dan."
He stood there in shock as she motioned toward the bed. Karen smiled at the expression on his face. "What? You did knock me up. The least you can do is keep me and your baby warm during the night," she joked, seeing the happiness on his face. Not wanting to appear rude, he removed only his shoes and crawled in next to her, pulling her back into his strong, warm arms.
As the room settled into darkness and the quiet invaded the room, Karen felt braver than she had in months. "There are days I miss this kind of closeness," she admitted. It was nice having someone to eat breakfast with and someone to take care of you when you were sick. Dan had been remarkably dependable over the past few months. She'd begun to depend on him and while that scared her, a small part of her was also thrilled.
Dan slowly exhaled, realizing that they could be moving to another level of their friendship. "I like taking care of you and spending time with you." He didn't want to totally say that he wanted to be with her, but it was so hard to hide these days.
She reluctantly spoke, fearing that she'd scare him off. "I think part of me might be falling for you again," she quietly admitted. It took a lot for her to say these things, especially to the man who had decimated her heart so many years ago.
Dan perked up at her words, his heart expanding at the idea that this could be more than sex between them. He rolled her over so he could look into her eyes. "Then why not make this official, Kar? We could be a real family and bring this baby into a single home with parents and siblings."
She leaned over and kissed him, lightly at first but deepening the kiss as he pulled her body toward him. He didn't need an answer tonight, but for the first time Dan was hopeful that this situation would turn out okay.
How anvil-icious was that chapter? Thanks to Tatiana and Deb for betaing. As always, thanks for reading. Comments and replies are appreciated. It's always interesting to see where people think the story is going.