A/N: Ok, so who remembers the prologue? It's all coming to full circle now…

Chapter 6

Flashback

Brooke POV

"Is it true?" I asked coming into the kitchen and putting the grocery bags on the counter.

"What? no hello?" Nathan asked playfully.

"Is it true?" I repeated firmly.

Nathan was sitting at the kitchen island on his laptop. He had been home a lot more lately and it was nice to have him around again. He seemed a little distant though but I ignored it, just happy to have him home more.

"Brooke, I have no idea what you're talking about," he said.

"So I ran into Bevin in the store today. You know what she said?"

"What?"

"She said she was so sorry to hear me and you split up," I repeated.

"Why would she say that?" he asked frowning.

"Hmmm… I don't know? Maybe because she said her sister apparently saw you all over Haley James in a bar and she naturally assumed for that to happen, me and you wouldn't be together anymore," I said sarcastically, "so is it true?"

"Brooke…" he said, his face reading panic.

"Oh my god," I said, one hand going straight to my face. His instant denial only told me it was true. I had a terrible feeling on the drive over that it might be true but I had made myself believe it wasn't possible.

"Hey, hey Brooke, just listen," he said immediately getting off the stool and coming over to me. He put his hands on my arms and turned me around. I took a step back from him, needing some space right now.

"Did you sleep with her?" I asked, my voice breaking.

"No!" he said loudly.

"So do you want to be with her?" I asked.

"Of course not, I love you Brooke," he said.

"So what? Nothing happened with Haley?"

"We kissed," he admitted.

"Oh wow," I said turning around and walking to the other side of the kitchen.

"Brooke, she kissed me ok? When I was coming out the bathroom," he said.

"Did you kiss her back?" I asked, crossing my arms.

Nathan hesitated.

"Perfect."

"No, I did but then I pushed her away, ok? Brooke you have to believe me," he said, "It meant nothing. I was just tired and upset over our argument and then I was drinking and Haley kissed me."

"Of all people? Haley James?" I asked, sinking into the chair. It had to be his ex-girlfriend. His first love. The girl who I used to feel constantly threatened by?

"Brooke, please can we just forget this?"

"If it meant nothing, why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"I didn't want to hurt you," he said.

"Well you managed that anyway," I said.

"As soon as it happened I realised how wrong it was—"

"Wait is that why you've been around more? Out of guilt?"

"Brooke I wanted to be with you," he said.

"Mom did you buy brownies?" Talia said coming into the kitchen. The tension in the kitchen was obvious right now, and Talia took one look at me and Nathan and said, "what's going on?"

"Natalia, not now ok?" I said passing her the box of brownies out the brown paper bag.

"Okay," she said sighing and leaving the room, used to our recent arguing. She shouldn't have to be used to them. None of the kids should.

What were we doing? What were we doing to each other? To the kids?

"Nathan, I can't do this," I said.

"Brooke the kiss was a mistake—"

"Nathan its not even about that. That was just the breaking point. Things haven't been good for us for a long time," I said sighing.

Neither of us had been happy for a while. We clearly weren't helping each other. I refused to bring the kids into that even more.

"Brooke—"

"We need space," I said firmly.

Xxxxxx

Nathan POV

"Can you at least pretend you want to be here?" Clay said, putting a beer down in front of me.

I took a sip, but the cool liquid that would have normally felt good, did nothing, and I pushed it away.

"I didn't want to be here," I said, "You hijacked my house keys so I had no choice."

"It was for your own good," Clay said.

"If you were at home, you'd just sit around being depressed and that wouldn't help anyone," Skills said.

"I'm allowed to be in a shit mood ok, I'm getting divorced tomorrow," I said.

"Yeah you're getting divorced tomorrow. You can't change that. So what's the point in dragging yourself down even more?" Clay said.

Luke said against the back of the booth and didn't say anything. I knew he was just as depressed about making the status of my relationship official as I was. He gave me a slight nod though, which told me he was with the others.

"We're just trying to be there for you ok?" Clay said.

"We got your back," Skills said.

"Thanks guys," I said. I knew I'd been out of it lately but it was good to have friends who were there.

"I'm going to go get shots," I said wanting to perk up a bit even if it were just for their benefit. They made the effort to come out tonight for me, so the least I could do was pretend their ploy to help me was working.

"That's the spirit," Clay said clapping me on the back.

I slipped out the booth, and headed over to the bar, which was getting busier now as it hit 'after work' period.

I leaned against the bar and waited for the bar man to come around.

"I heard you spent the weekend with your girl," I heard the guy standing next to me say.

"Yesssss, I did," the guy he was with said, "and let me tell you, the extra drive was so worth it. Well she made it worth my while anyway, if you know what I mean."

The first guy laughed.

I looked to my side and gripped the counter as it registered that the guy talking about his 'girl' was Julian. I had the kids on the weekend, so that's where Brooke was. With him.

"Nate, you ok?" Clay asked, coming up to the bar, but I ignored him and tried to force my body to keep cool. She's not yours anymore, I told myself. Despite whether she was mine or not, I wasn't going to let someone speak about her that way.

I refused to let my mind picture what Julian had just suggested and opted to count to ten instead.

One.

Two.

Three

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine—

"She must be sucking up to make sure you end up going through with the move to Greenboro," his friend said to him.

"Well she's sucking up for something," Julian laughed.

The instant the crude words hit my ears I saw red.

"Nathan?" Clay asked, but I ignored him and turned around.

"What are you doing?" I heard him say.

"Oh, um, Nathan right?" Julian said seeing me.

My fist clenched by my side and before I knew it, it had made contact with Julian's face.

"Yep," I answered as Julian knocked into the bar, and fell on the floor, "that's me."

The sound of smashing glasses rang out, as they knocked over on the bar and rolled onto the floor.

People around us took a step back.

"What the fuck, man?" Julian said, using his hand to push his weight off the ground.

"I wouldn't bother getting up if I were you," I said.

Clay grabbed me from behind.

"What are you doing?! Are you out of your mind?" Clay said panicked.

"Why's that?" Julian said, wiping the blood off his lip with his sleeve.

I punched him again without reservation, and he fell to the ground once again.

"That's why," I said.

Julian rushed up and got a lucky shot in right in the middle of my stomach. I took a few steps back because of the force and people started clearing out the way.

I saw Luke run up and push his way to the front and alarm cross his face as Julian lunged at me and we both ended up on the floor.

All I had to do was replay his words about Brooke in my head and that gave me enough adrenaline to fight Julian with full force.

She did not deserve to have someone speak about her that way.

I felt multiple people behind me pull me off Julian and I couldn't pull away.

"That's the last time we go out for a quiet drink," Skills said, refusing to let go of my arm.

"Let's just get out of here," Clay said.

"Actually, nobody's going anywhere," I heard a cop who had obviously been called say.

He signalled his partner toward Julian then held up a pair of handcuffs and gave me a pointed look.

Perfect.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brooke POV

My policy of the past two hours had been whenever I start to feel sad or angry about getting divorced or I start to think about Nathan, I eat a cookie. Not the healthiest option but it made me feel better for at least ten seconds.

I was starting to regret the pile of empty wrappers that had amounted on the floor now though.

"Mom?" Talia said coming down the stairs.

I jumped off the couch and brushed the crumbs off me, and scrunched up as many wrappers as I could. Talia did not need to see my embarrassing moment of weakness.

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"Nothing, what's up?" I asked, "shouldn't you be asleep?"

I looked at the time on my watch and it was nearing one am.

"I couldn't sleep so I was just going to start packing up my books and stuff. I'll get to clothes tomorrow," she said.

I could tell her to go to bed or at least try to sleep considering we had a lot to do tomorrow but I had a feeling there were similar thoughts to the ones I had troubling her too.

"Ok, do you want help?" I asked instead. I offered my help, needing something to do. I couldn't spend the rest of the night alone; I would just end up feeling sorry for myself. I knew the divorce had to happen but it didn't mean I didn't still love Nathan. Of course this was never how I saw my life playing out.

"No it's fine. Shouldn't take long," she said.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said, then bit her lip, taking me in, "unless you just want to come up there and hang out while I do it?"

I suspected she just felt bad; knowing I was feeling like crap about tomorrow, but her offer was sweet all the same.

"That sounds great," I said, putting my hands in my pocket.

"Ice cream?" she asked.

"I don't think my stomach could take it," I said lifting up my wrappers, "But I'll go get you some and meet you up there."

Talia laughed, and made her way upstairs.

I went into the kitchen and pulled out the tub of Chocolate Brownie ice cream and a bowl. I couldn't resist sticking a spoonful of it in my mouth after putting two scoops in the bowl for Talia.

The house phone rang behind me and I picked it up quickly to avoid Ella and Cody being woken up by the call at this hour.

I saw the called ID reading 'PEYTON HOME', so didn't bother to take the spoon out my mouth as I said hello.

"Brooke! Thank god! It all happened so fast—didn't know if I should call—but –then—"

I pulled the spoon out as I listened to Lucas's rushed words.

"Slow down, I have no idea what you're saying," I said, tucking the phone in between my ear and shoulder and putting the ice cream tub back in the freezer.

"I couldn't stop him!"

"Lucas, slowly, what are you talking about," I interrupted.

I heard him take a deep breath.

"We went to Chester's place, then Julian was there and next thing I knew Nathan hit him."

"What!" I yelled in shock, "did you just say Nathan hit Julian."

"Hit as in multiple times, yes," he confirmed.

"What the hell is wrong with him!" I said, putting my annoyance onto Luke, "I can't believe this!"

"And then they called the cops and Nathan's down at the station now," Luke said calmly.

"Nathan got arrested!" I shouted, then lowered my voice, realising that wasn't the sort of statement the kids needed to accidently hear, no matter how shocked I was.

"I already called Mouth and filled him in," Luke said.

"I don't even know what to say right now," I said, "Nathan got arrested for getting into a fight with Julian."

I repeated the events just for my own benefit.

"I have to go," I said.

"He's at Tree Hill County," Luke said realising where I was headed.

"Ok," I said about to hang up.

"Brooke—wait," Luke said.

"Yeah?"

"I should have called you right?" he asked, clearly unsure if the rules had changed because we were no longer together.

"Yeah," I said, knowing no matter what happened between me and Nathan, if something had happened and I hadn't received a phone call I wouldn't have wanted it that way, "thanks Luke."

I hung up the phone, and ran into the hallway, pulling on my converses which were at the bottom of the stairs, and put on the first thing on the banister which happened to be Talia's Tree Hill High Hockey Team hoodie.

"Tal?" I said loudly.

I heard her bedroom door open then she looked over the railing.

"What's going on?" she asked, seeing my unplanned attire of my denim shorts, oversized t-shirt which I was planning to wear in bed, and her hoodie.

"I have to go out for a while," I said.

"Is everything ok?" she asked looking worried.

"It will be," I said, grabbing my car keys.

"Mom—"

"Just watch Ella and Cody for me ok? I shouldn't be long," I told her.

She saw the seriousness on my face, and just nodded, not questioning me further for now.

"I won't be long," I said leaving the house.

The whole way to the station my mind churned. What was he thinking! You can't just go around hitting people! We weren't kids anymore! I suddenly felt like I was back in high school.

Nathan was just so immature all the time. This was always one of our problems.

I tried to call Julian but he wouldn't pick up. I hoped he was ok. I felt terrible for involving him in Nathan and I's world of dysfunction.

I pulled into the near empty parking lot and went inside.

There was nobody at the desk but I could see three officers sitting around one of their desks drinking coffee.

I drummed my fingers on the counter, waiting for them to notice me.

"Excuse me?" I called loudly, getting their attention, unable to wait.

They all exchanged glances trying to work out who was going to have to come and serve me. Eventually the tall skinny, middle aged officer walked over slowly without any urgency.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Hi, I'm here to see Nathan Scott," I said.

"Nathan Scott," he repeated, looking through some papers on his desk.

"He was brought in tonight," I said, finding it unbelievable that there was even anyone else being detained.

I sighed as he continued scanning files to find information for me.

"Brooke?"

I turned around and gasped, seeing Julian come out the side room, jacket in hand. My mouth dropped open at the sight of the bruises and cuts on his face.

"You should see the other guy," he joked.

"I am so sorry," I said, feeling extremely guilty.

"It's not your fault," he said, "don't worry about it."

A female officer came and handed him a plastic bag with his wallet, keys and watch inside.

"Thanks," he said to her, and then turned back to me.

"I have no idea what happened but he never should have—"

"Brooke, honestly it's fine. I'm ok. It makes me look tough," he joked, "And well it's not actually such a bad thing; My buddy called Eloise and she's making the drive down from Greensboro because she feels so bad. So I get to spend a few extra days with her."

"That's great," I said, knowing how much Julian hated being apart from his girlfriend.

"Do you have a ride home?" I asked.

"Yeah, my ride's in the parking lot," he said.

"Nathan Scott," the officer said loudly, finally having located the paperwork.

"You go," Julian said, "I'll call you."

I gave him a quick hug, then went back to the desk.

"Are you family?" he asked.

"I'm his…I'm his wife," I said. Technically it was still true, and they wouldn't let me in otherwise.

He raised his eyebrow at me.

"So this is for his release," he said putting papers and a pen in front of me, "Mr Baker isn't pressing charges despite the clear assault we saw on CCTV, so Mr Scott is free to go after this is filled out."

"Actually, I just want to see him," I said.

"You don't want us to release your husband?" he asked confused.

"No I'm ok. Just a chat with him would be great," I said getting more eager to speak to Nathan.

"To each their own," he said, lifting the hatch and coming around with a set of keys.

We walked down a long corridor then he punched in a code and let us into another large room with three large temporary cells.

Nathan was sitting on the bench, hunched over, leaning on his knees, and I started to walk faster, getting mad at the sight of him.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I yelled. My voice bounced off the walls, and the officer shirked back, not expecting my tone.

"Broo—" he tried to explain but I stopped him.

"No, are you insane?" I asked. I stopped speaking and took in his form. He had cuts and bruises like Julian, but considerably less. It was clear who the dominant attacker in the fight was.

"It wasn't like that…" he began. Is that all he was going to say? How could it be anything other than what it clearly was?

"Oh really? So you didn't just start drunkenly assaulting Julian in a bar?" I asked, crossing my arms. I was aware this felt like I was telling off one of the kids but if he was going to make stupid moves he was going to have to be treated like this.

"I wasn't actually drunk, they just assumed I was," he said. Oh my god. My mouth dropped open. Was he actually being serious? It was still bad, but now knowing he was completely sober! He what? Just decided this would be a good idea?

"You know that actually makes it worse," I said slowly then added, "I can't believe how immature you are, and I actually believed you when you said you changed."

I don't think I had ever been so mad.

I know things were tense for us when we were together toward the end, and Nathan had definitely changed, getting more irritable and drinking more, but I actually thought I saw old Nathan again once we broke up. He was doing so much better now. He had head coach position now at work, he went out with the kids all he time—he was just his old self again.

But now I was starting to see how I was wrong. Nathan wasn't going to change. I had to make myself understand we were no longer the people we used to be.

"Brooke, it wasn't like that ok? It wasn't like before. I just… you didn't hear what he was saying about you," he said.

"So this was over me? You have no right to do anything because of me! You have no right to interfere in my life anymore Nathan! You need to understand that!"

It actually hurt me to say that. Would there ever be a time where we weren't in each other's lives? Nathan was right when he made the comment a few weeks ago about how it wasn't my responsibility to make sure he was ok anymore, and it worked the other way too. The fact that I was here now though showed that would never be true.

"You know the kids are going to find out somehow, and that's if Natalia doesn't already know. You know how quickly news spreads in Tree Hill. How do you think it makes them feel?" I said, thinking of the repercussions of this.

"Brooke—"

I stopped him by holding out my hand. I was tired. I was tired and just so sick of it. I've just had enough to deal with in the past year and a half. I couldn't do it anymore.

"No, you know what? I don't want to hear it anymore. It's irrelevant. I'll see you tomorrow and we'll get done what we have to do and sign the papers, but then I don't want to talk to you. I can't deal with this anymore."

My words were calm and I couldn't look Nathan in the eye as I said them. I slowly walked away and toward the door. The officer did a little jog to catch up with me and let us out with the code again.

I let out a deep breath once I was back in the brightly lit office area.

"Brooke," Mouth said, standing up from the plastic chair.

"It's ok," I said.

"I'm going to go. I'll see you in court tomorrow," I said.

"It'll be fine tomorrow, I promise," he said, "I know I'm representing Nathan but you know that –"

"I know Mouth. You're a good friend," I told him. He clearly felt guilty at being on 'team Nathan' on paper, "say hi to Millie for me."

I gave him a hug goodbye then headed home.

I drove into my driveway and sat in my car for twenty minutes just processing.

When I was finally ready to go inside, I let myself in quietly. The hallway lights were off and the house was silent. I slipped off my shoes and yawned started going up the stairs.

The knock was so gentle I would have missed it if I was actually upstairs. I turned around and opened the door, able to guess who it was.

Xxxxxxxx

Talia POV

I turned over in bed again, and sat up in frustrated, now wide awake.

The first time I tried to go to bed tonight I was too preoccupied with thoughts of how this time tomorrow, Mom and Dad really would be over forever. The second time I tried to get into bed though I was just kept awake by my confusion of where Mom had run off to at this time of night.

Somewhere around two am, I had gotten a text from Amber Jason whose sister's boyfriend who graduated a few years ago was in a bar and recognised Dad who apparently arrested.

I didn't believe it at all, but it would explain why Mom went rushing out here after a phone call.

There was no way I would be able to sleep after a revelation like that.

I heard the front door open, and instantly leapt out of bed. I grabbed my glasses off my nightstand and left my room. I got to the top of the stairs and I was about to head down to talk to Mom, when I heard the door open again followed by voices.

"What are you doing here?" I heard Mom say.

"I couldn't let you leave like that," I recognised Dad's voice.

I sat down on the landing and peeked around the banister, making sure they didn't see me. Something in their tone, the late hour and possible situation that had happened tonight, I sensed it wasn't the best time for me to interrupt.

Dad was leaning against the door frame and had a cut by his eyebrow, and a bruise on his cheekbone.

"Why not?" she asked crossing her arms.

"Because I don't want you to hate me," Dad said.

Mom sighed, then moved back and sat down on the bottom stair. There was now a bigger gap between them but Dad didn't make a move to come inside.

"I don't hate you Nathan," Mom said gently, "I don't think I ever could. I just—I'm just over all of this you know? All the drama."

"Julian was saying these things about you. I know I have nothing to do with your relationship but I couldn't let go of what he was saying. Nobody treats you like that," Dad said, "You can tell me to get lost, but I'm not going to stop caring about you. I'm sorry about how it happened, but I'm not sorry I did it and you can't ask me to be."

Julian? Julian was saying things about Mom which made Dad mad?

I suddenly got a terrible feeling in my stomach that this may have been my fault. Why would Dad be bothered by any comments Julian made unless he was jealous?

I wanted him to get jealous and regret leaving us but I didn't want anybody to get hurt.

"It's not even about that Nathan," Mom said, "It's just everything. It's both of us. We're holding on to us. We're never going to be able to move on if we do that."

"Is that really such a bad thing?" he asked, "that we can't move on?"

"Nathan…" Mom said sadly.

"Baby I'm sorry. I really am," Dad said going to her and crouching down in front of her, "I've spent these last two years regretting everything."

"Ok, you kissed Haley fine, but Nathan there was so much else that was wrong before any of that even happened!" Mom said, "We tried Nathan, we did."

"We've been through so much together—" Dad said, putting his knees down and putting his hands on her knees. She placed her hands on top of his.

"Exactly. We've been through so much. It shouldn't have to be this hard to be together," Mom said.

"I love you Brooke Davis," Dad said using her maiden name. I had never heard him use it before, but she reached up and put her hand on his cheek. I suddenly felt like I was intruding in on a moment I wasn't supposed to be witness to. It felt strange seeing Mom and Dad like this, "if you don't love me anymore I'll drop it."

"Baby listen to me," Mom said. Here it was coming, she would tell him she doesn't love him anymore and it's over, "I love you, and I always will. There's no doubt about that."

What?

"Then—"

"But we're not kids anymore. Love isn't always enough," Mom said, "by holding on like we are, we're just making it harder for ourselves. We tried, we did. We had a good run. But it's time to let go."

Dad took a broken breath, and from where I was it looked like he brushed away a tear.

He tried to speak but stopped. Instead he kissed Mom on the forehead and left, closing the door behind him.

I was unable to move from my spot. I could feel my hands shaking. I thought Dad was selfish and kept hurting Mom and she didn't need him anymore or love him. But being here now, I had never felt as much emotion before, and I wasn't even part of the scene.

It was clear they were both hurting. A lot. It was almost like they needed each other to survive and they were willing to live this half life without each other.

I watched Mom break down in front of me into tears. She sat there for about two minutes before taking a deep breath and standing up, and straightening out her clothes.

It felt like I had just witnessed the end. I thought the end happened a long time ago but I was wrong.

If only she knew why he reacted the way he did with Julian. My thought process did a complete 180. Earlier I wanted Dad to leave us alone, and Mom to just move on. But I knew now that you can never just move on from your soul mate, and Dad was Mom's.

"Mom?" I called out, filled with guilt for my meddling.

"Yeah honey?" Mom said, quickly wiping her tears away, not knowing I was already observer to them.

"Are you ok?" I said going downstairs to her.

She didn't answer.

"Mom, this is all my fault," I said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

"What happened with Dad and Julian."

"I don't know what you think happened but this has nothing to do with you," she said.

"No, it does. Dad was mad because … I ….I told him Julian was your boyfriend," I said, then bit my lip.

"You did what?" she said, "why would you do that?"

"I was just mad, and I wanted to hurt him and he saw Julian drop me to school and I just said it," I admitted.

I waited for the disappointment to come from her, but it never did.

"This whole thing with me and your Dad has done a real number on you hasn't it?" she asked.

Before I could respond, she pulled me into a hug, and stroked my hair.

"I'm sorry," I said into her neck.

"No, I'm sorry," she said.

"But this is all because of me," I said pulling away and she wiped away my tears.

"No, it's not. Me and your Dad have a lot between us. Despite what you told him—it's not all because of that, ok?"

"Ok," I said reluctantly even though I still felt like I had made everything worse. I had never seen Dad breakdown in any way before. Dad was always the strong one. Seeing him tonight though made me feel like it wasn't meant to be like this. I had never stopped to think how Dad was doing in all of this.

I'm not saying what he did by kissing this Haley person wasn't wrong, but but…

"Listen to me, I don't want you to keep worrying about this ok?" Mom said.

"Ok," I said, giving her a weak smile.

"Now go to bed. We both have a big day tomorrow,"

xxxx

A/N: Ok, This chapter meant a lot to me. I really felt the emotion in the scene with Brooke and Nathan, and it broke my heart a little ;(

Ok so I'm warning you all now. THERE IS ONE CHAPTER LEFT OF THIS STORY! I"LL POST IT NEXT WEEK!

Predictions? Thoughts? What do you WANT to see happen and what do you think WILL happen?