Alright, I'm finally back.
Long story short, I had a person who logged in to my account as well as my Ao3 account and delete all of my written documents as well as changed my passwords and it took a while to get my accounts back. So I had to restart writing a lot from scratch, especially this story I was writing that I had done 5 chapters on up until that point but just didn't upload it yet.
But having all my work erased took the juice out of it for me for a little while but now it's back and so am I! Disappointed that all my works are gone but excited to start anew. Got to look for the positives somewhere right?
Also, if you are here but also reading my Grimm fanfic, I will be rewriting the new chapter to that one as soon as I can. I haven't lost interest in the story at all and it will get finished just as this one will.
Thank you for all of the reviews and messages for those who were worried!
Now without further ado, Chapter 5, hope you enjoy.
The smell of medicine filled the cool almost cold air.
The sound of a heart monitor beeping in the background filled the ears and outside chatter & footsteps could be heard faintly.
A very odd numbness was set all over the body yet with a head that was agonizing.
Heavy drowsiness, barely coherent, and eyelids that felt like weights. Yet they had to open somehow, even if it felt like a great effort to do so.
Then she heard a exhale of breath as if somebody was surprised out of a slumber of sleep. "Brooke?" She heard a tentative but hopeful voice same from aside her bed. Brooke's eyes are barely open into little slits yet the hospital lights were blinding.
A groan escaped her as if she was waking up in the morning. "Hey" that same voice said again softly and she realized it who it was.
"Peyton?" Brooke said groggily.
"Yeah, it's me."
"Where am I?" Brooke asked, the events of everything haven't come back to her yet.
Peyton's face grew a little uncomfortable because she really didn't want to repeat everything that had happened more than it had already been repeated in her head. Also, Brooke's obliviousness to it all was nice to see knowing the hell she went through.
So at least she has peace for a moment.
But sadly "Wait..." A moment is all it was...
Brooke sat up in the hospital bed slowly and troubledly, bringing a hand up to her face to feel a couple of bandages on the cut she got from the glass. Her eyes looked down at her legs but they were covered by the hospital bedsheet but she could tell her leg was wrapped in something. Wait wrapped? Like when Lucas wrapped her leg with his shirt. Then it all came rushing back to her.
Brooke's eyes bulged open and her head snapped toward Peyton with a growing angst. "Lucas!" She felt her chest almost heave from the excessive worry that built up in her so fast. "Peyton, where is he?" She asked wanting to know the answer but also not wanting to know at the same time if it was the worst.
Brooke didn't like the look Peyton had on her face at all, it looked scared and like she was trying to avoid something. "Brooke I think you should just lay down and-"
"Peyton" Brooke said as firmly as she could in her fatigue state.
Peyton sighed because she knew she would probably make her tell her even if she didn't want to say it. "He's still in surgery." She said, trying to be vague as possible because the more details, the more Brooke would worry.
Hell, the more she would worry.
Brooke prodded on though. "Okay, that's a good thing, right? So why do you look so worried?" Brooke asked with tears brimming in her eyes, she knew they would escape her but she would try to hold on to them.
Peyton's mouth opened to speak but no words formed, she was trying to find a way to say it so it doesn't sound as bad. "Peyton" Brooke said more firmly than the last time with a bit of agitation.
Peyton knew she just have to say it. "When we were on our way over here. Your heart almost stopped." Peyton said as her voice choked a little and Brooke was surprised to hear that but she didn't understand what that had to do with Lucas. "But Lucas's did." Now Peyton's eyes were the ones trying to avoid getting watery.
Brooke felt a couple of tears stroll down her face as she swallowed to try and speak. "Peyton...What did the doctors say?" She said in a teary voice. Peyton shook her head at having to say all of this because it just shouldn't be happening, none of this should be. "Peyton." Brooke's voice barely got her name out as her face balled up more.
"They said that he lost a lot of blood and that his heart stopped a couple of times and..." Peyton looked away to the ceiling for a moment as she leaned forward in her chair to grab ahold of Brooke's hand who accepted it. "They're not sure he's going to make it." Peyton finally said and Brooke felt her cries come on fully now as Peyton wrapped her arms around her in a hug and she did the same.
Clinging on tight as the heartbreak she was slowly feeling dawned upon her. "I can't lose him, Peyton." She sniffed some more but it only seem to make her cry harder, god why couldn't her eyes just have a break from the tears?
"You won't Brooke okay? I'm sure everything in the end will be fine. It has to be." Peyton felt like she was talking to the both of them at this current moment.
"No Peyton, you don't understand." She unwrapped her arms from around her and looked Peyton directly in her eyes and something about watching Brooke cry always broke Peyton, she was so bubbly all the time. "It's my fault."
Peyton's brows furrowed. "Brooke it's not your fault, none of this is your fault." Peyton wiped away some tears on her cheeks.
"If I didn't fall down and get stuck in that school in the first place" She said through her cries with Peyton trying to stop her from thinking like that but Brooke speaking over her. "Or if I could have called for help like I was trying to do then maybe he wouldn't be like this."
"Hey hey hey!" Peyton said to her as she placed her hands on each one of her shoulders. "You can't think like that. Stuck on what-ifs. What if I didn't leave my best friend thinking she was right behind me and now she's in the hospital when it should have been me here or both of us getting out of there?" Peyton rambled off and Brooke's cries settled for a moment as she realized Peyton was feeling guilty.
"Peyton that or this wasn't your fault." Brooke told her, watching as Peyton's gaze turned toward the floor then she rubbed her hands up her lower back before keeping them there as they were on her hips now.
"Yeah, I know." Peyton said as she finally looked at Brooke. "Still trying to convince myself that you know? But see if that wasn't my fault, neither is none of the stuff that happened to Lucas yours."
Brooke nodded and Peyton was hopeful she was getting through to her. "Still trying and won't convince myself of that." Brooke spoke sadly, mimicking Peyton's words from earlier and Peyton realized that answer was a no.
Peyton was going to give it another go until she was interrupted by the doctor walking in. "Hi, your awake!" The male doctor greeted cheerily and Brooke barely gave him a sad smile, she was too busy beating herself up at the moment.
The doctor looked at his clipboard as he spoke. "Don't know what the results would have been if someone didn't wrap your leg up...Whoever she or he is, is a lifesaver." The doctor said and Peyton was mad at him for saying that out of all things even though she had no real reason to be mad at him but still.
"Too bad no one could save his." Brooke said again sadly then flopped down onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Peyton sighed because she could tell Brooke was going to be beating herself up about this for a while and she didn't know how to help her but she knew who could.
That would be Lucas, all he has to do is stay alive then she be able to probably forgive herself for something she shouldn't even be trying to take the burden of the blame for. "Your leg is infected from the glass but we manage to stop it from spreading anywhere else, you'll be prescribed specific antibiotics and the dosages to take but you'll be just fine Miss Davis." Brooke just gave a small head nod to acknowledge she heard him but nothing much else.
"Although we will recommend you stay here for a few days just so we can monitor you."
Now that Brooke could promise him was going to happen, she didn't plan on going anywhere at all "I'm not going anywhere." Until Lucas was going with her then she would go but until then, the hospital was her new home for now.
"Very well. We would have told all this to your parents but they aren't here and we couldn't contact them."
Brooke would have scoffed if she wasn't so worried right now. "They are in California and trust me, they aren't coming."
The doctor nodded a little sadly at that and turned to leave but Brooke called out to him, sitting up now also. "Hey." He turned around, raising his brows in question. "Do you know if a patient named Lucas Scott is okay?" She asked and Peyton hoped that whatever he was about to say would only be good news for Brooke's sake.
For her own as well.
"Uhh, he's not my patient so I'm not sure but last I heard he was in surgery." He saw the disappointed look on Brooke's face as she plopped back down on her back, closing her eyes in despair. "We have some of the best surgeons so I'm sure he'll be fine." He tried to reassure but Brooke didn't really listen to him and he gave Peyton a sorrowful glance before exiting.
Peyton honestly was confused about why this was making Brooke feel so awful, she understands that Lucas is hurt, and she's deeply worried about that too and feeling a bit of survivor's guilt from not being there but this felt like a little much.
"Brooke" Peyton sat back down in the chair now as she watched her best friend stare at the ceiling. "Why are you beating yourself up about this so much?" She asked gently.
Peyton looked on as Brooke didn't appear as if she was going to answer until she sighed and turned to face. "He took a bullet for me, Peyton." She spoke so depressedly but a very small smile was seen on her cheeks. "He took a bullet for me." Peyton then realized that Brooke meant he literally took a bullet for her. Peyton this whole time thought Jimmy just shot him, not that he took a bullet for Brooke.
"I can't really remember how we got there. I just remember how he picked me up and he held me close" Brooke's eyes closed in comfort at the memory of him holding her so close, caring for her. Holding her so firmly because he wanted to protect her yet so delicate at the same time. "He was trying to get me out of there, then we ended up running into Jimmy and he ended up putting me down." Peyton brought her hand to Brooke's to give her a sort of encouragement to keep talking.
"I think Jimmy slipped, then Lucas..." Her face balled up but she manage not to make her cries too hard although she gave up on trying to avoid them altogether. "He wrapped himself around me and we fell or maybe he through us down I don't know." Brooke's face balled up again as she looked away. "I checked myself and I was fine, I wanted to tell him he saved me again then I saw him..."
Brooke turned her face back to Peyton, her tears assaulting her once again. "He coughed up blood and I didn't know what to do. Then I looked down and..." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "It was just so much blood, Peyton." She couldn't continue anymore and Peyton wrapped her arms around her in a hug again that wasn't really reciprocated because Brooke just clung to her and cried with her face buried in Peyton's embrace.
Peyton now understood why Brooke felt like she was so much to blame but she shouldn't be.
Nobody could ever plan for all of this.
Being in the waiting room allows you either too much time to think or too much unwanted time to sit when you are in a hospital.
Dan along with Karen who was waiting for an update on Lucas sat there, both in different thoughts. Karen would call Keith from time to time and she was starting to get even more worried because why wasn't he answering?
Dan was just sitting to himself, staring off into the distance, he hasn't even blinked or moved an inch. His hair was an upheaval mess from running his hand through it so much on the way here.
He wasn't even sure why he was here.
Not for Karen. Not for Lucas. Nathan and the others were going to be on the way but that wasn't why he was here. Maybe he just wanted to be alone without being alone. Murderer. The words echoed in his mind again and he shut his eyes at the despair they were causing him.
His eyes reddening from the constant nonstop thinking about it. Murderer.
"Keith I'm getting really worried and I need you here...Lucas needs you here too." Karen said and Dan felt this sudden irritation urge up in him.
"Why the hell do you keep calling him?!" He snapped randomly and Karen looked taken aback but today was not the day for anyone to be snapping at her, her face quickly going from shock to shaking with anger.
"Because I haven't heard from him all day and I'm worried about your brother you damn narcissistic jackass. Why are you even here Dan?!" She stood now as a scene was beginning to be made. "You don't give a damn about Lucas!" She spat. Walking toward him with menacing steps. "You abandon him and me long ago you selfish piece of-" But before she could finish it, she was interrupted.
"Karen, Karen" Haley called out to her, walking through the hospital entrance with Nathan behind her. Haley ran to her and gave her a hug which Karen returned and Nathan came up behind them as Dan went back to just staring off into the distance. "How is he?" She asked her and Karen just shook her head.
"He's in surgery and they won't tell me anything else" she said slightly frustrated. She pulled out her phone to look at it again to see if Keith called back finally. "I been trying Keith but he hasn't answered. You guys haven't seen him have you?" She asked and both Nathan and Haley's faces went pale.
"What?" Karen asked as she notice how stricken they looked.
Haley eyes started watering and Nathan looked away for a moment like he really didn't want to be a part of bearing this terrible news to her. "What is it?" Karen asked again and you could hear the slight annoyance in her right now.
"Keith umm..." Haley didn't even know how she could say it. "Karen, I'm so sorry." Haley just said and Karen started getting this sick feeling in her stomach, disgustingly sick feeling in her stomach.
"Sorry for what?" It came out almost as a hiss from how lowly she said it.
Haley couldn't say it so Nathan just rubbed her shoulder and took a step forward. "Keith's gone." He said as respectfully as he could, his pain at it all growing with the way Karen's face changed. It looked like she was broken but also like she didn't believe it.
"What do you mean Keith's gone?" They could tell she was about to lash out. "Like out of town...Or to get something real quick." Nathan's mouth balled into himself and he realized he was going to have to tell her.
His mouth moved to speak but all of a sudden the hospital entrance got bulldozed open. "Mayor Daniel Lewis Scott you are under arrest!" A couple of cops called out and Dan shot up startled.
"For what?!" Dan yelled back at them, ripping his arm out of the grasp of one before two more came in.
"Dad what did you do?!" Nathan yelled, his brows furrowed in confusion. Karen and Haley hadn't uttered a word, just their mouths hanging open, what the hell was this day?
"For the murder of Keith Alan Scott, your brother." The cop yelled as two more came and forced Dan against the wall for resisting the way he was.
"WHAT?!" Karen hollered stricken from the place she was standing.
"What?! My dad wouldn't do that?!" Nathan screamed as he tried to get to him but was held back by another officer and Haley came to try herself as well. "Dad they're lying right?! It was Jimmy?" Nathan's eyes looked like they were pleading for it to be a lie and for the cops to be wrong.
Peyton ran out of Brooke's room after hearing all of the commotion. "What's going on?" She called out as she walked toward the huge mass in the waiting room right now but didn't receive an answer.
Dan all of a sudden stopped struggling and he looked like he was broken inside as they forced him onto the floor from all his previous struggling. "DAD!" Nathan screamed at him again, fear and disbelief taking him over as Dan still hadn't answered, he just stared with those puffy red eyes. "Dad I will stand by you & defend you no matter what, just tell me you didn't do it!" Nathan begged of him as they were finally managing to slap the cuffs on him.
But Dan didn't say a word again. "DAD!" Nathan felt like a little boy begging his father, begging him for anything just not the worse as the police held him back still. He calmed slightly as Haley took ahold of his arm to link theirs together. "Dad..." Nathan said more quietly realizing Dan heard him and understood him but wouldn't answer. His mouth was quivering like he wanted to speak but no words would form.
They picked Dan up off the floor now as the cuffs were on him and begin patting him down to make sure nothing was on him now. Then Nathan saw the same lady cop they saw earlier in the school come in with a phone in her hand. "If he won't answer then I will." She walked to them as they were still finishing up searching Dan who still hadn't said anything.
"The girl with the glass in her leg was recording something and it was on the whole time..." Dan's eyes shot open in some surprise at that, how could he have not seen that? She fast forward to the fatal part of it all and she flipped the phone to Karen so she and the others could see it, although Karen still hadn't reacted much. It was a little grainy and hard to see but you could see enough. "I'm sorry." The officer said as it begin playing but none of them really listened, just watched.
Nathan already noticed the one part that didn't make sense to him. Keith was checking on Brooke and Lucas...but Jimmy was already dead...
So how could it have been him if...?
Then they saw a man in a suit come up in the back of the video but you couldn't really see the face yet, the camera lens wasn't big enough. "Danny hurry! They need help!" They heard Keith say and nobody still reacted too much and Nathan still held onto a little hope. Anybody could be named Danny right?
Then the man walked into view finally just enough, and you could see Dan crouch down to grab the gun from Jimmy and his face was there for everyone to see "Oh my god." Haley gasped as everyone saw his face. Dan Scott.
Peyton watched from behind, even she was shocked, she never really cared for Dan or had much faith in him but if he does what he was being accused of next. Even she would be in disbelief at that.
Then everyone watched as Keith turned around and Karen's eyes had silent tears streaming down her face as the ultimate moment was coming. Bang... The sound caused everyone to gasp and jump back for a moment and it officially broke Karen as soon as Keith collapsed, so did she. The officer's eyes shut, knowing that this man clearly meant a lot to all of them and was close, she tuck the phone back away and Nathan was looking at Dan in disgust who flinched at the sound of the gunshot as well.
"What happened to you?! Nathan bellowed in disbelief as Dan curled away to himself as the cops didn't take him away yet, letting them all voice what they needed to him before they did.
Then all of a sudden Karen blasted up from her seat she taken on the floor and made a run at Dan, lunging even though one of the officers caught her but she still manage to deliver a hard smack to his face that was heard throughout the room and Dan didn't even try to stop her. The officer pulled her back and Haley and Peyton knew they should try and hold her back but they were still stunned by it all and they didn't want to in all honesty. Both of them would want to do the same as she was right now.
Karen slipped the grasp of the officer just enough to spit on Dan who started trembling. "I hate you!" She screamed at him. "You don't deserve to live." She screamed harshly, coldly through her pain-filled cries.
"I'm not coming to see you." Nathan said to him just as coldly. "You stay away from me! Lucas! My family or anyone else I care about!" Nathan growled. "The day Uncle Keith died is the day you died!" Nathan never in his life thought he be this livid.
The cops now started taking away a broken, miserable Dan who look like he lost all of his fight in him.
Karen collapsed down into the chair now, clutching herself as she tried to take all this in and Haley and Peyton took each a seat in the other chairs on the side of her, Peyton placing a consoling hand on her shoulder and Haley hugging her yet it was reciprocated. Karen hadn't noticed anything anymore.
She felt her world slipping from her, her heart broken, guilt eating her up and she knew why but told herself she didn't understand why. They finally were going to have a life together and be an official family.
Now Keith was gone, Lucas probably was going to leave her too.
Her faith and hope felt drained and diminished. Everything hurt yet felt so numb at the same time. Dan Scott, she thought ruined her life years ago by abandoning her & Lucas but it was the best thing that could have happened for them this time, he did ruin her life.
A permanent scar of the man she loved was tainted with the image of him crashing down because a brother who he loved unconditionally yet never received that love in return killed him.
Nathan just kept staring off in the direction Dan was previously preoccupied.
How could he do something like that? Nathan never even really got the chance to get to know Uncle Keith, but for the few moments, he did talk to him...He was more of an inspiration and gave him true father-like advice unlike the man who was his actual father.
Now Nathan felt guilt for the time he had never given or taken the time to have with him. All because of his own damn father.
What the hell was this day? It was exactly that...Hell.
Then the surgeon came out of the operation room, pulling his mask down and then everyone was hoping for some good news, everybody bouncing up expectedly although Karen stood up slowly, she was ready to hear the news that would send her into an official deep, dark spiral.
It felt destined at this point.
"Miss Roe..."
AN: Sorry if this was a little short, hoping to get back into my groove of writing with this one!
Also, the person didn't want me to say their name or anything but shoutout to someone who said that they really enjoy my writing and think I keep the characters sounding like how they actually would in the show! Really meant a lot to me, you know who you are!
PS: Public question, now in the first few episodes of OTH, am I the only one who got a slightly romantic vibe from Lucas & Haley those first few episodes? I know they said they were best friends and I'm glad they kept it that way because I love their friendship but did those first few episodes give anyone else that vibe for a moment too? Or is it just me? Hahaha.
