Hey all, thanks for reading and reviewing!

Okay, I hope y'all are comfortable, because this chapter is long. It started out with me just writing a scene that I've had in my head (because the angst, I love the angst), and it ended up being 7 pages long. Which are how long my chapters are usually. So once I you know, added a plot and everything, it ended up being extremely long.

There are some relationship troubles like I said, but never fear. I love all the relationships in the story, and we all like the happy don't we? But sometimes the angst is fun too.

Early Friday afternoon, Karen dropped Lucas off at Dan's house.

"Okay honey, are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yes, mom."

"You don't have to come to the club tomorrow night Lucas. I know you must be tired."

"Nah. I need to get out and do something."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"But honey…"

"I'm fine Mom."

"You were burning up earlier. Maybe you should just stay home."

"The doctor said it was probably just from sitting around all the time. Which is why I should get out."

"If you're sure…"

"Which I am."

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

"Bye Mom."

"Hey there." Dan said as Lucas walked in.

"Hey." Lucas smiled.

"Didn't I see your mom pull up like five minutes ago?"

"She wanted to make sure I was okay before she let me out of her sight."

Dan chuckled.

"I should've known. Hey, put your stuff upstairs. I want to talk to you.'

"Okay." Lucas said.

Dan was in the living room when he returned downstairs.

"Sit."

"Am I in trouble?" Lucas joked weakly.

"No. I actually wanted to apologize."

"For what?" Lucas asked, sitting down on the couch facing Dan.

"I haven't really been there for you much during this whole thing. I barely spent any time with you in the hospital, and I didn't check in at all with you this week."

"It's okay, there were other things-"

"I just got scared of losing you when we just started to get to know each other. First you and Nathan got into that car accident, then Nathan had to go to rehab, and then you have a heart attack. It felt like some kind of sign from above."

Lucas was silent for a moment.

"I was disappointed you didn't really come talk to me at all after that first visit." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry Lucas."

"It's okay. I do understand where you're coming from though."

"You do?"

"I'm always afraid of losing things now. I think that every single time Nathan and I argue, we both freak out. We don't want any of our fights to be the one that drives us apart again."

"But you and Nathan rarely argue."

"Exactly."

"I see. So…how have you been?"

"Not especially good."

"Really?"

"I'm just pissed off that all this happened. Especially when I've been so careful with the medication and I quit basketball."

"I know. It still doesn't make sense to me."

"Me either." Lucas said sadly.

"Well, I may not have been there much this past week, but from now on, I'm here 24/7. Okay?"

"Okay." Lucas smiled.

"So how are you feeling? You look a little flushed." Dan said, getting up and feeling Lucas' forehead.

"I'm fine."

"You're burning up."

"It's just from sitting around all week. Trust me, my mom called the doctor like every day."

"I bet." Dan smiled.

"Nathan, if you grip my arm any tighter, you might just rip it off." Lucas hissed in Nathan's ear as they walked into the house where the party was being held.

Nathan glanced down. He did in fact have his brother's wrist in a vice grip.

"I'm sorry Lucas." He whispered, letting go.

"Ah, freedom." Lucas smiled.

"What are you two whispering about?" Brooke asked.

"Nothing." They replied in unison.

"Nathan you want to go get a drink?" Theresa asked.

"Sure." Nathan nodded, following her into the crowd.

"That's so cute, he's nervous isn't he?" Brooke smiled.

"A little bit." Lucas laughed.

"Aww. So how are you?"

"Doing really good, actually."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. My dad and I had a good talk today. He told me he was sorry for not really checking in with me while I was in the hospital. Said he got scared…"

"I'm glad that you worked that out."

"Yeah, finally something is going good for me." Lucas said.

Brooke stopped.

"What's wrong?" Lucas asked, oblivious.

"Nothing." Brooke answered quickly.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Let's party." Brooke smiled, deciding to let it go.

"After you." Lucas said, letting Brooke lead the way.

They continued to hang out at the party, and watched together as Nathan and Theresa slowly got more and more comfortable around each other. By the end of the night, Nathan was definitely back to his old self, laughing and joking with everyone and having a great time.

"We're going to Tric together tomorrow night." Nathan said happily as he and Lucas got in the car to go home.

"That's great, Nathan. So you feel good about this?"

"Definitely."

The next night at Tric, it seemed like everyone from Tree Hill High was there. Everyone was dancing and laughing, having a great time.

"Bubbly for my boyfriend?" Brooke said, bouncing over to Lucas and giggling loudly.

"Brooke…where did you get that?" Lucas asked.

"The bar, duh."

"Brooke come on, my mom is around."

"Oh so what? It's a party! She isn't inspecting every single one of us."

"Please. I don't want her or you to get into trouble."

"Lucas, come on. Have some fun for once."

"I do have fun."

"Not lately. You're always so moody…come on baby, let's dance." Brooke said, pulling him roughly onto the dance floor and clumsily moving around.

"Here, Brooke. Let's sit instead." Lucas said, pulling her back down to a table. He handed her his water bottle.

"I don't want it."

"You need it. You have to sober up before my mom sees."

"Oh my God, Lucas. Will you shut up about getting in trouble?" Brooke snapped, suddenly becoming angry.

Lucas sat there for a second, taken aback.

"What?"

"I am so sick of this. Every time I try to have fun, you always ruin it!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're never happy anymore, Lucas. Why can't I make you happy?"

"You do make me happy, Brooke."

"You have a funny way of showing it!"

"What's going on Brooke? You know getting drunk at my mom's club would upset her. Do you really want her to get in trouble for this?"

"No." Brooke said quietly.

"Here, we can go back to my house and-"

"No. I don't want to. I want to stay. I'm having fun with my friends. This is who I am, Lucas. Take it or leave it."

"This isn't you. You're not stupid enough to be drunk at my mom's club where people will notice that you're underage, because they know you, Brooke!"

"So now I'm stupid?"

"I just said you weren't!"

"You know what, I am sick of this. I guess I'll just find someone else then."

"What?"

"You don't appreciate me at all, do you?" Brooke yelled.

"What are you talking about?"

"I never make you happy. You talk about how sad you are, so I must be part of that! Why don't you just find someone else? Or better yet, go find Nathan, he's the only one you seem to care about these days!"

"What?"

"You heard me." Brooke snapped, picking up her drink and disappearing in the crowd.

Lucas swallowed hard and went out back behind the club.

He slowly leaned himself against the wall, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

"What did I do?" He wondered out loud as he pushed himself back up into a standing position.

"Dammit!" He yelled over and over, punching the brick wall repeatedly, not caring about the scratches and cuts that were now covering his hand. And the pain...well it was nothing new to him these days. Suddenly he realized he wasn't even thinking about Brooke in particular, he was mad at a lot of things in his life. It felt almost good to get it all out, even if this was a stupid way to do it.

Slowly he sank down to his knees and rubbed his arm, which was full of a dull ache as blood ran over his fingers.

He shivered in the damp chill of the air, and slowly got up to make his way home.

Jake moved through the crowd, looking for Nathan. He finally found him sitting on a couch with Theresa.

"Hey man. Where's Peyton?" Nathan said, turning to face him.

"Getting Brooke so they can go home."

"It's still early." Theresa said, checking her watch.

"Yeah, well Brooke is not in the best state of mind right now. How's Lucas doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what? What happened?" Nathan asked, standing up.

"Brooke's been drinking. She decided that Lucas wasn't enough 'fun' for her so she dumped him in front of everyone and went off somewhere."

"You got to be kidding me."

"I'll go help Peyton find her." Theresa said, disappearing into the crowd.

"This can't be happening." Nathan said, mostly to himself.

"Look, it just seems like things got a little out of control." Jake said, trying to reassure Nathan.

"This is going to destroy him, Jake. Why did this have to happen now?"

"Hey is Lucas alright? I saw him run out of here a few minutes ago, he looked really upset." Mouth said, approaching Jake and Nathan.

"Something happened with him and Brooke." Nathan said quickly, wanting to get out of there.

"Nathan, it'll be okay." Jake said calmly.

"I hope you're right…I have to go see if he's okay. Tell Theresa I'm sorry."

"Okay…"

"Call me later and give me an update?"

"You got it."

"Thanks Jake." Nathan said, running outside as Jake and Mouth went to find Brooke and Peyton.

Nathan ran up the stairs as fast as he could, and threw open the door to Lucas' bedroom. There wasn't anyone in there, but Nathan could see Lucas sitting in the doorway of the adjoining room.

"Lucas?" Nathan said quietly, walking over to Lucas and sitting down beside him.

Lucas was sitting against a cabinet, with his head lolled to the side, staring dully into space. He had come up there with the intention of treating his hand and then going to sleep, but he ended up sitting on the floor.

Nathan scooted closer and stared at his brother.

"Lucas come on…talk to me."

"So should I just drum up another heart attack and make it stick? Make everyone's life easier?" Lucas said finally, his voice strained.

"She didn't mean it." Nathan said.

"If even she didn't mean it, she's right. I dump all my problems on everyone else, no wonder she got sick of me and dumped me."

"Come on, she's going to wake up tomorrow and realize she made a mistake. She loves you."

"I didn't mean to make her mad, I really didn't." Lucas said, finally looking Nathan in the eye.

"It's going to be okay."

"Okay." Lucas said, running his hands through his hair.

Nathan felt a little relieved for a second, until he saw blood smeared right near Lucas' hairline.

"What the hell…" Nathan leaned over and felt Lucas' forehead for cuts.

"What are you doing?" Lucas asked, pulling away.

"Your head is bleeding." Nathan said.

"Huh?" Lucas said, touching his forehead.

Nathan was still leaning over him, and saw the source of the blood.

"Luke. Oh my God." Nathan gasped, grabbing Lucas' hand and inspecting it. His knuckles were all banged up and Lucas moving them had caused them to start bleeding again.

Lucas tried to pull away, but Nathan had a firm grip on his arm.

"Nathan, stop. It's fine."

"Fine? Lucas, look at your hand!"

"It was just…I went outside behind the club. Punched the wall a couple of times." Lucas said quickly as Nathan ran his fingers over all the cuts and scratches on his hands.

"Come on, here." Nathan said, grabbing a washcloth and Lucas' hand.

"It was just a few times…" Lucas mumbled.

Nathan slipped his other arm under Lucas' shoulders and pulled him up.

"Shit. You're lucky these aren't deep, we'd have to go the emergency room. What did you do to yourself Luke?" Nathan said, inspecting the cuts.

"I was pissed off. At myself, at Brooke, everything…" Lucas said as Nathan began treating his hand.

Nathan sighed and wrapped up Lucas' wrist in gauze.

"Do you need to make it so…obvious?" Lucas mumbled.

"Um, if you want it to heal then, yeah." Nathan said.

"Sorry. I just don't want her to see." Lucas said softly.

"Well she's going to. I can't get around that." Nathan said.

"What's with you?" Lucas asked, pulling his hand back.

"This was just a really stupid thing to do." Nathan said, grabbing Lucas' hand again.

"It's good enough."

"Wait a minute. I'm almost done." Nathan said tightly.

"I'm fine. It's just some scratches and bruises."

"But it could've been a lot worse." Nathan said angrily.

"I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am. I just hurt my hand, Nate. Nothing more."

"But you could've done something worse, Lucas! Don't you get why this bothers me so much? I don't want to watch you hurt yourself, and I especially don't want to watch you end up in the hospital again!" Nathan yelled.

Lucas didn't know what to say.

Nathan swallowed hard, embarrassed about losing his temper like that. He looked at Lucas sitting in front of him, looking lost, blood still smeared on his forehead.

"Sorry. That's not what you need. Sorry…sorry." Nathan mumbled, feeling bad.

"Jeez." Lucas finally said, his voice a little shaky.

Nathan nodded quietly.

"I get it, now's not the time. I'm sorry. I'm doubly sorry, because this is going to sting." Nathan said.

Lucas winced.

"Ouch." He said, trying to pull his hand away, but Nathan grabbed hold of it.

Nathan smiled sympathetically at Lucas.

"That should do it." He said.

"Thanks." Lucas said quietly.

"Feeling better?"

"Feeling like an idiot is more like it. You're right, it was stupid"

"You were angry."

"Yeah. Hey…do you think we spend too much time together?"

"Probably." Nathan laughed.

Lucas nodded.

"Why?"

"Brooke said I only seemed to care about you these days."

"Where did she get that idea?"

"I must've said something to her. I don't know. I don't what I did."

Brooke woke up and realized she was in Peyton's room. Peyton wasn't in the room, but she could hear voices down in the kitchen.

She wandered down in the kitchen and saw Peyton making breakfast.

"Good morning sunshine." Peyton said.

"I feel like crap." She moaned, sitting at the table and resting her head in her arms.

"That is what the aspirin, and the pancakes I'm making is for." Peyton said, pointing to the bottle of aspirin on the table.

"Thanks."

"Sure."

"Okay, so I can't remember anything from last night. Please tell me I didn't do anything stupid."

"Well I could, but then I'd be lying." Peyton sighed.

"Why? What happened?"

"Brooke!" Jake said, coming in with a big fake smile.

"Volume, Jake." Brooke complained, rubbing her head.

"So sorry. Hangovers are a bitch, are they not? So how does it feel to be single again?" Jake said, his fake smile disappearing.

"What?" Brooke gasped, looking at Peyton for confirmation.

Peyton nodded sadly.

"No. No! No…what happened?"

"Well, you snuck alcohol at Tric, and when Lucas tried to stop you, you yelled at him, dumped him, and were hitting on other guys within 15 minutes."

Brooke sank down in a chair, trying to wrap her mind around it all.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" She said, her voice filled with tears.

"Brooke, just talk to him." Peyton said gently.

"I can't talk to him after I did that to him, he'll never speak to me again."

"You have to talk to him. You love him, don't you?"

"Of course!"

"Then make this right." Jake said.

"You're right. Can I use your phone?"

"Go for it." Peyton nodded.

She smiled a little when she heard Peyton scolding Jake for being a jackass as she walked out the room.

She made her way up to Peyton's bedroom and shakily dialed the number to Lucas' cell phone.

Nathan woke up early and went across the hall to check on Lucas. They had both stayed up late that night talking, and didn't get much sleep.

Lucas was still out like a light, so Nathan quietly shut the door and went downstairs to get something to eat.

Lucas had left his jacket, wallet, and cell phone in a heap on the counter. Nathan picked it up to move it, and as he was holding the stuff, Lucas' cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was Brooke.

"Before you ask, Lucas is asleep and I'm sure as hell not waking him up. And even if he was awake and had answered the phone, I probably would've ripped it from his hands and smashed it so he wouldn't talk to you." Nathan said, remembering how upset Lucas was the night before.

"Nathan, please." Brooke said desperately.

"Bye Brooke." Nathan hung up.

Lucas got up an hour later and came downstairs.

"Hey." Lucas yawned.

"Hey. If you're still tired, why don't you go back to sleep?"

"I just need to get out I think. Go for a walk."

"You want me to come with you?" Nathan asked.

"No, but thanks. I just need to clear my head."

"Sounds good." Nathan said quickly.

Lucas walked past the café and decided to go to the music store. Before he could walk in, Brooke appeared and grabbed his elbow.

"Lucas, please listen to me." Brooke pleaded.

"Now you want to talk to me?" Lucas said angrily, pulling away.

"I'm so sorry for last night. That wasn't me. Not anymore. I'm so sorry Luke."

"What happened to you Brooke?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know. I just was frustrated I guess. Being the party girl seemed appealing last night. It was a way to escape."

"Escape from what?"

"This past year or so I've tried to be a whole lot more mature. I'm living on my own, I have to keep a job, and I'm in a real relationship with someone instead of just hooking up randomly-"

"Well I'm sorry if being with me is too much for you Brooke."

"It's not, Lucas! I just…I don't know what happened to me. I understand though, if you never want to talk to me, if you can't forgive me. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry and I would do anything to make this right because I love you so much."

"I love you too." Lucas said quietly.

"What?"

"I love you too, but how could you do that? What did I do?"

"Lucas…"

"We've both done stupid things in the past, Brooke. I'm going to make mistakes; you're going to make mistakes, its all part of life. I would love to move past this, but a lot of stuff you said last night…I can't get it out of my head."

"I didn't mean it."

"There had to be a bit of truth behind it. You asked me why I was so unhappy all the time, why couldn't you make me happy, that I don't appreciate you, and there had to be some basis to those feelings."

"Maybe…"

"Come on, tell me."

"I do sometimes wonder, why you aren't happier. But then I realize that you've been through so much."

"I have. But you definitely make me happy. You've been the bright spot in most of the crap I've been going through this year."

Brooke smiled.

"That's good to know. I needed to hear that."

"I'm sorry, I never tell you enough how much you do for me."

"I just want you to be happy again, like you were that night when Nathan came home."

"Well I could be…if I knew we were okay."

"Are we okay?"

"Yeah I think we will be."

"I love you so much Lucas."

"I love you too."

"We're good?" Brooke asked, taking his hand.

"Yeah."

Brooke smiled and then felt the bandage on Lucas' hand.

"What happened?" She asked, looking at his hand.

"Last night, I kind of took out my frustrations on the wall outside Tric."

"Oh my God…"

"It's fine. Nathan wrapped it up."

"Good."

"I should head home."

"Okay…you sure?"

"Yeah I need to get some sleep. Didn't get too much last night."

"Oh. Okay. I'm glad we got to talk. After this morning, I thought you hated me."

"What?"

"This morning, I called you. Nathan answered."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Lucas, he was just trying to protect you."

"It's none of his business." Lucas fumed.

"Lucas…"

"I'll call you later. I promise." Lucas said, walking away.

"Hey." Nathan said as Lucas came in.

"Hi."

"You okay?"

"Brooke and I made up."

"Just now?"

"Yeah. Of course it would've been a lot sooner if you had told me she called." Lucas said pointedly.

Nathan swallowed hard. This was not going to go well.

"Look, I'm sorry. She called really early this morning and we had both just gotten to sleep…and I didn't want you to get upset again."

"Nathan, it wasn't for you to decide."

"I was trying to protect you! She hurt you bad, Lucas. I could see it in your eyes, even if you didn't have a screwed up hand to show for it."

"I don't need to be protected. What if she had thought I never wanted to speak to her again and gave up?"

"She wouldn't."

"She could've."

"Lucas, I'm sorry. Okay? Please, just relax."

"Whatever." Lucas muttered, going up to his room.

Nathan went up to his own room a few minutes later, stunned.

He stayed there for an hour, listening to music and trying to figure out what had just happened. Finally he got up to look for Lucas, who had left a note on the kitchen table saying he was at the café.

Nathan sighed and picked up his keys.

"Hey Karen, have you seen Lucas?"

"Yeah, he went up on the roof. He and Haley have a whole mini golf set up there."

"Oh."

"It's right that way." Karen said, pointing.

Lucas was tossing a golf ball between his hands when Nathan walked up to him.

"Haley and I built this." Lucas said quietly.

"So no outsiders?" Nathan said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I honestly don't know what the hell is wrong with me."

"What are you talking about?"

"I was being a jackass earlier, Nate. I understand why you didn't tell me about Brooke calling. I probably would've done something like that if the situation was reversed."

Nathan laughed.

"Yeah. Probably."

Lucas laughed too.

"I don't know…I'm just trying to get back to normal, and for some reason it's easier to just push people away."

"You didn't push Brooke away."

"I think I might have."

"How?"

"I just kept making so many comments about how much my life sucked yesterday, and that nothing was right anymore. I think she definitely took it to heart, because last night one of the things she asked me was why she didn't make me happy."

"Oh…"

"I don't know, Nate. I've just been down lately, and it seems easier to either bitch about it or to try and piss you or someone else off than deal with it."

"I didn't realize it was this bad."

"Me either."

"I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. Thank you for trying to protect me from being hurt again. I really do appreciate that you cared. Even though…it was between me and Brooke."

"I won't do that again." Nathan promised.

"Hopefully you won't ever have to. But thanks anyways."

"Anytime."

"Sometimes I think you act like the older brother instead of me."

Nathan rolled his eyes.

"For the last time, you're only three months older than me."

"Yeah, whatever little brother." Lucas laughed.

Heh. So I screwed around a little with the relationships. But nothing too bad, right? I also realize I didn't include the Haley subplot that I said I was going to, but it didn't quite fit in how I wanted with this chapter. Next chapter for sure.

Hmm…it is really weird writing Dan as a nicer person, especially considering how he is on the show. Also, Karen to an extent after this week's episode. I understand she is grieving, but wow. Ouchies. Poor Lucas.

Up next…well I think Lucas needs some kind of outlet for all his frustrations, don't you? Perhaps Nathan can help him find a way to deal with everything, yes? And Haley definitely comes up with a way to get Nathan's attention again.

As always, please read and review!