A Season in Purgatory

Chapter 76

Through the storm, we reach the shore

You gave it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you
With or without you

Dan handed Karen a cup of tea and a plate of crackers. She was propped up in his bed, on mandatory bed rest from her team of doctors. Lucas' hospital stay had pushed her over the edge and her pre-eclampsia was a growing concern for the pregnancy.

She smiled at him as she sipped her tea. Dan had really been a revelation to her over the past few months. He had supported her in ways that she didn't know she needed supporting. Dan crawled into bed next to her and stared at her for a moment, before raising an eyebrow at her. "What?" he quizzically asked.

"I was just thinking about how good you are treating me," Karen softly replied, reaching out to grab his hand. She held it for a moment, thinking how safe she felt being with him. Everything in her life was falling apart at record speed, but she finally felt complete being back with her childhood sweetheart.

He smiled down at her, happy to hear such simple words. "I'm trying really hard to take care of you," he admitted, knowing that he had so much more to do regarding their son. "Have you thought about the house issue?"

Groaning, she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "Between the baby, our businesses, and our sons, you want to go out and try to find a house?" She couldn't wrap her mind around the idea of buying a house, letting alone picking up her life and moving it across town.

He considered her words for a moment. When they picked Luke up at the hospital, they told him that he was going back to Dan's house. Karen was staying with Dan so he could monitor her health issues and there was no way he could stay at Karen's house alone. Luke's reaction had been muted. Dan was shocked that he didn't throw a fit. Apparently, nearly dying had given his son a better perspective about the situation.

For now, Lucas was safely tucked in a guest room down the hall from Dan. He felt that it would be harder for the boy to sneak out of the house. While the boy had been fairly low key, Dan expected his surliness to return once Luke regained his strength.

"The problem with buying a house is that we'll then own three houses in the same county," she pointed out. "We don't have time to go house hunting and move before the baby comes."

"Well, your house is too small, the beach house is a bit of a drive for all of us, and that leaves this house," Dan replied, knowing that logic dictated that they stay in his current house. "You can redecorate and try to make it feel more like your home," he suggested.

Nodding, she realized that was the best idea. "I don't need to redecorate. Deb did an awesome job with the house. And I really don't want to change anything that might upset Nathan."

Dan reached out and touched her check, happy that she always thought about other people before herself. "We'll work it out. We can let Luke pick out a room and then focus on decorating the other room for the nursery." His house had four bedrooms upstairs which was more than enough room for two teenage boys and a baby.

She smiled at him for a moment before tearing up. "For as long as we have Lucas here," she reminded him. "We need to talk about this," she said, knowing that they had put off the issue for two days. Neither of them wanted to entertain the idea of sending Lucas away, but his behavior had gone from sulky to dangerous in less than two months.

Dan sighed and turned to face her. "I know what the specialist we talked to said, but I feel like sending him to a boot camp is the easy way out. It's like we're shipping him off to let someone else deal with his problems. If you follow the logic, you should probably send me along with him, since most of this is my fault."

They'd called an educational consultant who specialized in teens with substance abuse problems. Ms. McDowell had explained their options and discussed how a boot camp could help Luke dry out from the booze and drugs, while working on his issues about his family with trained counselors.

Karen frowned at his words. "I don't think it's a sign of failure. I think it's more that we realize that we can't help Lucas. There are no treatment programs in Tree Hill and so we have to send him some place. The program's success rate is very high," she conceded, still shocked that she was considering taking her son to a wilderness program in Oregon.

The goal was to isolate the child from problem influences and help wean them off the substances they'd been abusing. The program was twelve weeks long, most of which was spent trekking through the countryside. Karen figured that they wanted to break down the oppositional nature of the kids and help them find better ways of communicating. The idea that Brooke would be no where in sight was an added bonus.

Dan shrugged at her words, knowing that they offered hollow reassurance. He felt like a failure and this program basically reconfirmed that. "I don't know what else to do, but I'm not sure this is going to do much for Lucas, other than deny him access to alcohol. Keith told me that he loves camping so he might actually enjoy a twelve week vacation away from us."

"He does love being outdoors, but it's winter time so that might give him time to think about why he's camping in such harsh conditions," Karen softly replied. She was concerned that the camp focused on breaking down the kids and building them back up.

She would have preferred an intensive counseling atmosphere, but the program promised that counseling was at the heart of the program.

Dan thought about the glossy brochure they'd been given for a moment. He hated it when he knew he was right and people tried to break his will. He could only image how badly Luke was going to take this, even if it saved his life along the way. Dan was terrified that Lucas was heading toward disaster. It wasn't a matter of two immovable Scott's arguing any more. Luke was in bad shape and desperately needed time to get sober and work things out. "I don't mind the camp but I'm not on board with sending him to a special school afterwards," he firmly stated.

There was no reason that Luke couldn't come back home and work on getting some credits toward graduation for the rest of the year. At some point Luke was going to have to take summer classes to make up for the classes he'd failed this semester. And it was inevitable with three weeks left in the semester that Luke was failing some of his classes.

Dan didn't worry about his son being held back a year. Luke was so smart that he could easily make up lost ground. He just needed to get back on track. Dan didn't think he needed to go to a special school for more work.

Karen sighed at the situation they were in, knowing that there were no good answers to their problems. She didn't want to send Luke away before the holidays and their fast approaching wedding. "Chris sent his son to this camp a few years ago. He swears it helped his son get to the point where he could accept the counseling that the school offered," she pointed out.

Dan shrugged, having talked to his friend a few days early about their son's problems. After a brief struggle, he'd been clean and sober for years. It had taken time to repair his relationship with his parents, but it had been done over the years. "I think this last incident scared Luke and that he knows he's got a problem now," Dan said, as he reached out and pulled her closer to him. "That's half the battle."

A sharp shrill noise from his phone forced Dan to pull away from Karen, disrupting their afternoon break. "That's the text from Nate. We're ready to move," he said, getting up and heading for the door.

Karen frowned for a moment before giving him a smile. "Be careful. And don't take any risks," she said, as she watched his form disappear down the hall."

Brook leaned back against the bed, taking in her new home. While she wasn't a big fan of the neutral colors, she was a huge fan of Keith and Anna. She was stunned that they'd agreed to let her stay with them while her mother was out of the country. She knew that Katherine would throw a fit as soon as she got home, but she'd deal with that later. She was safe for now, with a clean, pretty room all her own.

Anna's house wasn't as large or fancy as Brooke's but it had a coziness that made it feel like a home. More importantly, she felt like she could let down her guard. She felt safe in this renovated Victorian home.

Lucas walked in, carrying a tray of snacks. Setting them down on the dresser, he looked at the empty closet. "You're going to have trouble fitting all your clothes into that small closet," he noted, looking critically at the small space. Her closet at home was more of a separate room, rivaling the size of Luke's bedroom.

"My clothes are supposed to fit in there?" she laconically replied, being able to laugh at her reputation as a clothes horse. "I originally thought that was just a shoe closet."

Brooke and Lucas were at Anna and Keith's, babysitting while Dan, Nathan, Keith and Anna went to retrieve Brooke's things. There was a consensus that Luke not go, as the situation was already tense. Dan didn't know what to expect, but he emphasized Luke's health as a reason for him not to go. While they had Brooke's key to the house, they didn't know who they would run into while grabbing her things. Brooke had given them a short list: her laptop, cosmetics, lingerie and as much of her shoes and clothes as they could grab. She didn't want anything else from that place. She could live without all of it, but she had big plans for the things they could retrieve.

She looked over at her boyfriend in concern, as he leaned against the wall for support. Luke had only been out of the hospital for two days. He didn't feel like another confrontation with anyone right now, let alone Brooke's family.

Brooke perched uneasily on the side of the bed. "I needed to downsize the closet anyway. I'm going to sell a lot of the stuff once I get settled."

He looked at her curiously. Lucas never understood shopping. Brooke was always brining bags of stuff home from the expensive boutiques in town, but he never saw anything leave her closet. "Why are you selling it?" he asked.

She sighed in exasperation at his denseness. "You do remember the plan, right?" she waited for his small nod before continuing. "We have to start saving money. We need every penny we can get. My purses and shoes alone cost a fortune. There's a huge market for used designer goods." With all the wannabe fashionistas in Tree Hill, Brooke knew last season's stuff would get a great price.

Brooke had approached the skeevy pawn shop manager about the untapped Tree Hill market for designer goods. Her nose wrinkled in disgust at the guy's fashion ignorance. She'd shown him what her purses were selling for on Ebay and suggested that he give her counter space for her castoffs. Brooke mentally calculated the potential profits and smiled like a Cheshire cat. She was banking all her allowances and money from her father. She was carefully withdrawing as much money as she was allowed each day from her credit cards. She had requested cash for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Her family was so uninterested in shopping for her that they'd probably already written a check. It's not like anyone would stop and consider why a girl who had everything would ask for cash.

Sensing the distance between them, he moved across the room and sat next to her on the bed. "I hate that you have to sell your stuff and that my contribution is so small." He had been forbidden to work with his Uncle because of his grades. Luke thought that his mother didn't trust anyone to spy on him at a level that satisfied her paranoia. He admitted that the free time did help him study more.

"I'm draining my small savings account and saving all the "allowance" money that Dan gives me," Luke offered. It's not like he wanted to touch any of Dan's money, but he was in so much trouble since his drinking binge that he didn't want to start any arguments over silly things like money. Luke would gladly take it to further their goals.

She nodded at him, but didn't offer any other comment in typical Brooke Davis fashion. He'd barely seen her since the hospital. His mother was omnipresent and Brooke had wisely stayed away from her. Dan and Karen had insisted that Luke stay at Dan's house, so that the entire family could be under one roof. While it infuriated Lucas, he knew that it didn't matter what happened in the next few weeks. He could stand sleeping in the guest room for the short term.

"Do you want to tell me why you are mad at?" he quietly asked, knowing when she was not acting normal.

Brooke looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "I prefer to yell at healthy people," she conceded, shocked that was actually taking time to really read her body language. Lucas had been a bit self obsessed lately.

He gently took her small hand into his before answering. "The doctor released me into my mother's care. He obviously feels I'm healthy enough for combat," he quipped, relieved to see a smile at his feeble attempt at humor. "What did I do?" he asked.

Sighing, Brooke realized that she needed to say some things before the big day, in case they imploded before then. She'd always put up with so much disrespect in past friendships and relationships. She was always afraid that if she demanded something of someone else, or had standards for a relationship, that person would leave. It explained why she'd put up with Peyton's shit for so long and why she'd never had expectations with past boyfriends. But Brooke was tired of being accommodating. She was sick of compromising herself away.

"I'm disappointed in you," she slowly started, knowing that he had already been nagged to death by Karen. "I can't make plans for the future if I can't count on you today."

He stared at the floor, unable to meet her steady gaze. "I know it put you in a bad position with my parents…" She abruptly stood up and cut him off.

"You don't get it. I'm not upset about the hospital," she quietly said. "It's that you were drinking at the lowest point of my life. I was terrified, battered and emotionally traumatized. All I wanted was to be comforted by my boyfriend but you were too drunk to take care of me," she accused, finally expressing some of the grief from that night. She was still crying herself to sleep and waking up with nightmares.

"I needed you to take care me and I ended up taking care of you. You weren't there for me when I needed you," she slowly confessed. Brooke was disappointed in Luke's reaction to her crisis. She was prepared to completely alter her life with this man and she couldn't do that if he fell apart on a regular basis.

Luke's heart clenched at her words describing his inadequacy. He'd failed her when all he wanted to do was help her. "I felt so bad about not protecting you that night when…" his voice trailed off.

"The night I was raped," Brooke finished, saying the word he couldn't say. It some how made her feel stronger to articulate what happened to her. It was beginning to be a word and not a label. She still wasn't happy about everyone knowing but at least she could say the word.

Lucas shifted around uncomfortably, not sure how to deal with the situation. "I should have protected you that night."

Brooke ran a hand through her dark hair in frustration. "You didn't know me back then, Luke. You sure as hell didn't know me well enough to want to protect me. I didn't need you back then but I needed you two nights ago. And you weren't there for me," she softly stated, knowing that he had to hear the truth.

She watched as his shoulder's sagged a moment, before continuing. She had to get this out so that they could crash and burn or move forward. "I needed you to take care of me and barring that, I needed to take care of myself. But what little energy I had left that night I spent making sure you didn't die in front of me."

A tear ran down his cheek, as her words hit him with a force he only associated with Dan Scott. It hurt so much because he realized she spoke the truth. He was wallowing in his own pain at the expense of being an equal partner to his girlfriend. Lucas walked slowly across the room and gently took her hand, drawing her into an embrace. He hugged her for a moment before pulling back to look her in the eye. "I swear to you that I'm done drinking," he firmly stated, making sure his voice was as strong as he could make it. "I promise right now that I will stop being so selfish and I'll do whatever it takes to make the plan a success."

She sniffled for a moment before hugging him back. She didn't want to lose him, couldn't lose him. Lucas was the center of her universe and she needed him at full strength.

Pulling back, Brooke gave him a smile that lit up her dimples. "Then we're set. We'll make last minute plans, liquidate all the money we can, and move forward." He gently moved a piece of her hair away from her lovely face and smiled down at her. "It's going to be a very Merry Christmas in Tree Hill."

Dan shoved a huge stack of clothes in the back of his SUV and took a moment to lean against the vehicle to catch his breath. He didn't know what Brooke's parents spent on clothes a month, but it suddenly made him very happy that he had sons and not daughters.

They'd used Brooke's key to enter the house and so far, no one had approached them or asked them what they were doing. There was no sign of Brooke's step-father at all. Keith bumbled out the front door and tossed an armful of clothes in his car. "I wouldn't have signed up for this if I knew she had a closet the size of my living room," he muttered, joining his brother for a short rest.

Dan laughed for a moment, taking in the easy companionship he seemed to have found with his brother. Outside of disputes centering around Luke, they were more in synch than any time Dan could remember. "I thought we were picking up some things for her," Dan replied, thinking that Anna had deliberately underplayed how much stuff Brooke had in her room.

They walked back into the house and up the cold staircase to finish their mission. Nathan was placing smaller items in a box and directing Anna around the room to things he knew Brooke would want. Anna watched as the two men walked through the double doors. "That's the last of her clothes and shoes. We've got her jewelry and laptop, so I think we can leave now," she decided.

The group quietly headed down the stairs, taking the last of the boxes with them. They were nearly out of the house when a well dressed man stepped into the foyer. "What are you doing," Trey demanded, taking in the scraggly group of people making their way down his staircase.

Anna smiled at the man and moved in front of Nathan to confront him. "We're taking some of Brooke's things to my house," she informed the man, instantly taking a dislike to his imperious manner. "She needs a break from this house and will be staying with my husband and I for a while."

Trey's eyes instantly narrowed and his demeanor became belligerent. "Brooke is not really any of your concern and I'm sure the local police would agree with me."

Feeling protective of his sister-in-law, Dan moved over toward the pair as he motioned for Nate and Keith to take their boxes out of the house. Trey smiled at Dan and shook his hand. "I missed you on the golf course today," he jovially greeted the man.

Dan gave the man a tight smile. "I was busy helping to get Brooke settled," he revealed, taking pleasure in the surprise he saw on Trey's face.

"You are involved in this custodial interference?" Trey asked, surprised at how inbred most of Tree Hill's population was.

Dan pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a business card. "This is Judge Parker's private number. Give him a call and tell him what is going on. I can promise you that no one in Tree Hill is going to question my judgment when I say that Brooke is in danger," Dan coldly stated, making sure that his intent was clear. "But then that would result in an official investigation and of course, that wouldn't reflect well on the Davis family name."

He knew he had the man in a vice grip. Pretentious people like Trey never wanted undue attention into the private lives they led. And based on the man's reaction, Dan had to assume there was something going on that he didn't want people to know about.

"Tell Katherine to call me when she gets back to town," Dan tossed over his shoulder as he herded Anna out of the monstrosity of a house. "I'm sure she'll be willing to discuss the Brooke situation with me."

Okay, that was a 16 page update. And I updated fairly quickly, so between the length and the quick update, I should get many Scooby snacks thrown my direction.

I can't believe that after all these years the story is coming to an end. I don't know how many chapters are left, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for all those still reading.

I'm kind of giddy about knowing the story will be finished. There's a lot going on in this chapter, so I'd love to know what you think or feel. Besides the Karen hate, which I know you all feel deeply. So, replies are appreciated. It helps to know what people think after you've written such a long update.

As a note to those who sent PMs, I started writing this story at the end of season 1 (yes, I know. It has to be the oldest OTH fic out there). So, Brooke's mom didn't have a name. I invented Katherine and didn't want to change it to Victoria when the character was introduced. So there you go. I'm not dense, I'm just being consistent with my faux OTH world.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend~