Rose woke up with a migraine the day of Nathan and Haley's second wedding. No, really, her head throbbed like there was some man inside her head playing a bass guitar extremely loud. She threw the covers off of her and sighed. She was going to that wedding no matter how much her head hated her for it. She walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

Well, doesn't someone look pretty today? Hmph. At least I'm not the bride.

She splashed water on her pain-flushed face, hating her head for choosing to hurt on this super important day on which an event occurred that Rose was obligated to go to. Dabbing her face with a towel, she looked back in the mirror. She shook her head.

I know it's not good to be prettier than the bride, but to be this unappealing is a crime.

...

Rose had gotten over her inner conflict and fit herself into the strapless red dress that all the bridesmaids were wearing. She wasn't exactly thrilled about having to stand beside Brooke and Peyton and feel the tenseness between the two, but it was her brother's wedding, so she figured she'd manage. She'd caused it, anyways, so she had no right to complain.

"Does this dress make me look fat?" Rachel asked Rose as they got ready.

"You don't need the dress to look fat," Rose retorted.

"Bitch," Rachel muttered as she walked away.

"Well, you're grumpy today," Peyton observed from beside Rose.

"I woke up with the worst headache," Rose complained. "I get cranky. And I'm even grumpier because Jake won't be here."

"Why not?"

"Some kind of family reunion," Rose shrugged. "I never liked those."

Peyton chuckled. "I guess we've had our own reunions, huh?"

"Yeah, guess so," Rose said. She turned around to see Brooke, who was looking quite sour. "Excuse me," she said to Peyton. She walked over to Brooke.

"Hey, Brooke," she said, "why don't you smile? It's a happy day."

"Any day I spend around Peyton isn't a happy day," Brooke muttered.

"Come on," Rose rolled her eyes, "don't make it about you. This is Nate and Haley's day, and you're the frickin' maid-of-honor, and with that scowl crinkling up your face, you look like the old-maid-of-honor."

"I'm gonna be an old maid."

"Brooke, I just said don't make it about you."

"I know, Rose, but..."

"Get out there, stand beside Peyton, and, hell, act like she's not there if you have to," Rose said, cutting Brooke off.

"How? Unfortunately, I can smell skank."

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but closed it immediately, figuring that it wouldn't make a difference what she said, and she already told Peyton she'd stay out of it, so she just walked away, over to the bride.

"Well, doesn't someone look fancy!" Rose commented, smiling. "And beautiful, of course."

"Thanks, Rose," Haley smiled.

"Are you nervous?"

"Oh, no, I've done this before," Haley laughed.

"I'd still be nervous," Rose shrugged. "What if someone doesn't hold their peace? Regardless of the fact you're not putting that part in the ceremony..."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm the sister of the groom," Rose said mysteriously, picking up her water from a nearby table. She took a sip. "I know things," she finished, walking outside.

Peyton and Brooke were already in their places, throwing verbal jabs at each other as Rose took her place.

...

After the ceremony, Rose was headed to the tent for the reception when she felt someone grab her arm. She turned to see who it was and was surprised to see that it was Jake.

"I thought you had prior obligations," Rose said wryly.

"Well, my Grandpa Jagielski decided he wanted to go bowling instead of host the reunion, so there's a raincheck for next weekend," Jake explained.

"Bowling?" Rose couldn't help but laugh.

Jake laughed, too. "You never know with him."

They entered the tent, which was rather large. "I would camp in this," Rose commented as she walked to stand beside Brooke and Lucas. It had been awkward between them ever since they broke up, and Rose wished there was a way to get them back together, but Rose had to stay out of it for the sake of her siblinghood with Lucas, and her friendships with both Brooke and Peyton. Rose, for one, didn't want Peyton and Lucas together. She thought that Peyton needed to find her own boy, preferably not Brooke's leftovers.

Rose also hoped that Brooke and Peyton could patch things up and be friends again, because the fact that she couldn't have them in the same room without them fighting was ridiculous. They were almost adults, and Rose thought they should be acting like it.

She watched Nathan and Haley dance, wondering if she could ever be so in love that she gave anybody the look Haley gave Nathan. She hoped for that. Ever since she was little, she'd yearned for it, even if she didn't know it. She would watch Georgina and Benedict dance around the kitchen on those nights when they weren't too busy to cook dinner or actually eat with Rose, and she had always wanted that sort of love. The love that didn't die through business obligations or near-bankruptcies or even everyday struggles. The love where you would fight, but that didn't matter because you'd realize how stupid you were and you'd go back and apologize because you can't lose that person, and you could stand to be wrong sometimes for that.

As she listened to Brooke and Lucas' toasts, she noticed a pattern in them. Nathan and Haley did give everyone else hope, and that's what everyone needed. Hope.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Rachel became the center of attention.

"Well, well... I would like to make a toast, to Cooper's toast, about love. But, wait a minute, what could Nathan and Haley possibly know about love? I mean, they're only seventeen right? Right Cooper? You see, Cooper seems to think a seventeen year old couldn't possibly know anything about love. Of course, you know, that didn't stop him from having sex with me. Right? To sex with Cooper!" Rachel raised her glass and ran out of the tent.

"She didn't just do that," Rose said furiously as Cooper ran out after Rachel.

"I think she did," Jake said.

"But wait, my uncle had sex with that?"

"Rose..." Jake chuckled.

"Well, what, you don't think it's even the least bit wrong?"

"Of course I think it's wrong. He's, what, 30?"

"Yeah...I think she must've lied."

"I hope that's the case," Jake said.

"He's in a lot of trouble if it's not."

...

Jake and Rose were on their way to her hotel room after the wedding when Rose got a call.

"Lucas?"

"Rose, there's been an accident. Meet me at the hospital. It's Nathan."

"Okay." Rose said. Lucas hung up.

"Jake," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "We've got to go to the hospital. It's Nathan."

Rose had never seen anyone make a faster u-turn in her life.