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They show no mercy. He keeps claiming that he won't do what they ask. He won't throw away the state championship, especially now that they’ve closed in on Haley. They've shown how far they are willing to go, and he can't accept that.
The metal rod bears down over his knee and he has never, ever been in as much pain before. The only thing that comes close is when he crashed that car. But that time his head hadn’t been clear, the concussion had dulled a little of the pain and most of his memories.
Now, his head is clear and he would scream if Bear hadn’t forced a balled-up piece of fabric in his mouth.
The pain radiating from his leg is almost enough to knock him out. Hot and white and it’s all he can think about.
It doesn’t help that Bear drops him to the ground. A sob, choked around the fabric, springs from his mouth.
“Wonder how those boys will do in that championship now, huh,” Daunte says, leering over him. “Hopefully they won't know what actually happened to the great Nathan Scott. Or we have to come after them too.”
Daunte turns to leave, but then he stops and turns to look back at him, gravel crunching under Daunte's foot. Meanwhile Bear is still holding his arms down so he can’t remove the fabric filling his mouth.
“And isn’t one of the Ravens your brother? Would be awfully sad if the great Scott family name would disappear from basketball in the span of a short week.”
Bear drops him to the ground then, and proceeds to kick his injured leg and it hurts so much Nathan almost passes out.
When he opens his eyes again, both Bear and Daunte are gone.
It takes him a second, more like a minute, to breathe through his nose and gather enough courage to lift his arm. When the pain doesn’t completely knock him out, he pulls out the fabric from his mouth.
At least now he can breathe a little better.
He can’t stop the tears that are still leaking from his eyes, but he tries to stop himself from sobbing. The jerking motion of his sobs will make him hurt even more.
He breaths and breaths and breaths and tries to get enough air into his lungs to yell.
When he tries, it just comes out like a sad croak. He’s so far into the alleyway and cars are still rushing past in the street, drowning his sounds. He makes to move but the slightest adjustment of his leg burns pain through his whole body.
Even though there's a burning pain in his leg, he can feel how the cold from the ground is seeping into his bones. Can feel that there is wetness on the leg he has yet to even dare look at.
He yells again.
And hears steps. First, he thinks it’s a trick of his mind. Then, he fears it's Bear and Daunte coming back for seconds. Either way, he’s terrified.
“Nate?” a confused voice says.
And it’s Lucas. Now for sure, he knows his mind is playing a trick on him.
“Oh god, Nathan,” Lucas says again, and then there are hands on him. Or, at least his imagination tells him so.
Then Lucas shakes him enough to jagger his wounded knee. He knows then that Lucas can’t be his imagination because the pain is close to unbearable.
He screams.
Enough to scare Lucas, the hands disappearing. He fears that Luke has left him too.
“Your- your knee,” Lucas whispers, still there. Nathan almost misses the hands, even if it made the pain follow because he can’t see clearly and he is so afraid.
Afraid of dying alone in the alleyway. Afraid that his life is over, in more ways than one.
“Hey, I’m here Nathan,” Luke whispers, suddenly closer again. “I’m not going to leave you here alone.”
Nathan wonders when Luke learned to read thoughts, or if his mouth is moving even if Nate tells it not to.
“And I promise, you’re not going to die,” Lucas says, and Nathan wishes he could believe it.
He thinks he loses time, or maybe it gets lost in the haze of pain.
“Hey Nate,” Lucas shakes him a little, voice loud, and there's a pain in his leg but it’s dulled. “There’s an ambulance on the way, but you've got to hold on until then, okay?”
It’s not okay. The ground is so cold underneath him, and he thinks maybe he was shivering before but now he isn’t.
“Answer me, Nathan,” Luke commands, “I can go get Haley if you want.”
“No,” he yells, as much as he can yell, suddenly terrified. Terrified of being alone. Of Lucas leaving and then not coming back. “Don’t leave me.”
Maybe he should be embarrassed. He would be before, about being so open and afraid but right now all that matters is that he does not want to be alone.
“Okay, okay, I won’t,” Lucas promises then, and Nathan feels a warmth closing over his hand.
“I’m cold,” he whispers, unsure of why it slips out, and if it's taking his lucidity with him.
There are sirens in the distance.
“I know, Nate, I’m sorry,” Luke says, and Nathan feels the warmth squeezing his hand.
“‘S not your fault,” Nathan tells him, struggling to find the power to speak. His body is working on the simple task of breathing in and out.
The sirens close in.
“Nathan, I probably have to go show them where we are,” Lucas says, the warmth around his hand moving to drag away.
“No, no,” he tries to tell Luke. He finds he’d rather wait a million years for the ambulance than lay here, cold, alone, even if that is insane.
“Stay,” he pleads.
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” Lucas says, and he can hear the pain and tears in his big brother's voice.
The warmth, the only warmth he had left, leaves his hand.
“I need to get you some help. I promise I’ll be back.” There is some shuffling, and he feels something being laid over his chest, something warm, and soft. A jacket.
Then Lucas is gone. The only tether he had to consciousness left him.
He is all alone. Like he has been so many times in his life.
Until he met Haley. Haley, who is everything to him and who on top of that helped him gain a brother. Helped him get away from Dan and Deb.
The darkness closes in, even if he tries to fight it. The pain, the cold, and the huge sorrow filling his heart are too much to bear.
He thinks he hears the sound of boots on asphalt closing in on him, but they are too slow to stop the dark.
-
It takes all his willpower to stand up, let go of Nathan’s hand and leave the alleyway.
But Nathan’s bloody pant leg, how pale his brother is, and how cold his hand feels under his own, compel him. His little brother needs help. Now.
So even when Nate pleads, voice more like the teen Nathan is than the adult he’s forced to act like, Lucas gets up. He promises to be back, lays his own jacket over Nathan, and hopes it will at least help a little. Then he turns.
Hears the ambulance, it has to be the ambulance, close by and runs.
Thank god, the ambulance is right there as he steps out on the street. He sees how they’re so close to the café and Haley should know but - he promised Nathan to be back. And Haley is his best friend but Nathan is his little brother.
“Over here, my - my brother,” he tells the EMTs, waves for them to follow him, and together they return to the alleyway. For a crazy, stupid second he fears that Nathan won't be there. Whoever did this to Nathan, it's possible they came back and took him.
Or, that the pain, the wound, was too much. That Nate won’t be there in a completely different way.
Nathan is there though. He falls to his knees by Nate’s head, to let the EMTs work.
“Nathan, hey,” he whispers, “I’m back. Like I promised.”
His brother doesn’t answer, is still and limp and it makes Luke’s heart racket but then -
Then the paramedics move Nathan’s injured foot and Nate’s blue eyes shoot open.
And his brother screams. Screams filled with more pain than Luke’s ever heard.
“I’m sorry, kid, we need to stabilize this knee,” an EMT says, sitting close by Luke at Nate’s head, and she peers down at Nathan. “But your brother is here, okay?”
Nate nods, even if he’s pale as a ghost, eyes wide and afraid.
“My name’s Hen,” the EMT says, “that’s Chim. We’re going to take care of you. Can you tell me your name?”
Nathan looks at her for a long second, before he manages to rasp a low, “Nathan.”
“Okay, Nathan,” the EMT, Hen says, then looks at Lucas as she grabs Nate’s hand.
“Here, you’ll hold his hand, right, brother?” the EMT asks, gesturing for him to move closer, to take Nate’s hand from her grasp. He nods, follows her mention, and grabs Nate’s hand.
“Talk to him,” she encourages Lucas before she moves to help the other EMT, Chim, or something, with Nate’s leg.
“Hey, Nate,” he starts, trying to catch his brother's eyes. “Nathan,” he repeats, sharper this time. That does it. Nathan’s blue eyes stare straight into his own eyes.
“You’re back,” Nathan whispers, eyes shining with unshed tears.
“Of course,” he answers, surprised by how wet his voice sounds, “I promised.”
“It’s - it’s still so cold,” Nate whispers.
“I know, I know, but they’re going to fix you.”
“We’re giving him something for the pain, now,” Hen interrupts, voice steady. “It might make him more drowsy.”
Lucas takes a second to look at her and gives a nod that he received the message. Then he moves his concentration back to Nate.
“It hurts, Luke,” Nathan says, barely above a whisper.
He squeezes Nate’s hand a little harder, but he doesn’t know what to say. Nathan struggles to hold his gaze, face still drawn in pain.
“We have to move your brother now,” Hen says, as she squeezes his shoulder. “You have to step away a little, so we can get him on the gurney.”
Lucas nods, feeling more like a robot than a human. As he goes to move he realizes how hard Nathan is holding onto his hand.
Even as much as it pains him, especially when he sees the betrayed confusion on Nathan’s face, he pries Nate’s hand open. He lets the cold hand fall onto the ground, away from him.
A sad whimper escapes from Nathan’s lips, and Lucas finds himself looking desperately at the EMTs.
“It’s the painkiller,” Hen assures him. He watches as they move swiftly to get Nate onto a board and then lift him up on a gurney.
“Are you joining us in the ambulance?” she then asks, as she removes the jacket Lucas had laid over his brother. Chim replaces it with a thin blanket.
He nods because he already feels awful having to let go of Nathan, again. Can’t imagine having him go alone in an ambulance, alone to the hospital.
“Good,” Hen smiles, and he jogs after them as the EMTs move quick. A crowd has appeared by the alley now, and he hears people gasping as Nate gets wheeled past.
Shit, Haley. They’ll tell her. Gossip travels fast, especially so in Three Hill. Lucas needs to call her.
He climbs into the ambulance once they’ve got Nate loaded in.
“This yours?” Hen asks, then, holding out his jacket. He nods, grabbing the jacket, and it feels cold in his hand. He looks down at his brother.
It hurts his heart when Nathan seems almost surprised he’s still there. When their eyes catch, even through his pain-filled haze, his eyes widen. The guy was alone for so long. Had no one to stand up for him, not like this, before Haley launched both herself and Lucas into Nathan’s life.
“Is it okay if I call someone?” Lucas asks, looking at Hen and the other EMTs. She nods, fiddling with an IV in Nate’s arm, and they’re fluttering around Nathan’s ruined leg.
“I’m going to call Haley, okay?” he tells Nathan, and his mind flashes back to another time when Nate was on another gurney. Begging him not to call Haley.
This time, Nathan nods.
He dreads the conversation, he still doesn’t know what happened to Nathan. The EMTs haven’t asked either.
“Hey Luke,” Haley answers, “I’m at work so you should feel lucky I answered.”
“Haley..,” he whispers, not knowing how to tell her. She knows him though, knows him so well. The second he spoke, she must’ve known something was wrong.
“Lucas. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“Something... Something happened with Nathan,” he rushes to tell her. He hears her gasp and knows he has to continue before she interrupts him. “I’m not sure what. But his leg... It's really messed up. We’re in an ambulance, on our way to the hospital now.”
“But I, I just saw him. Is he going to be okay?” Haley asks, and he can hear the tears welling up by listening to her voice.
He looks at his little brother, out of it, and his leg - stabilized but still all wrong. Blood leaking through bandages.
“They’re doing what they can,” he states. Then he reaches for Nate’s hand again, seeing it hang free and limp slightly off the gurney.
“I’ll go to the hospital,” Haley says, broken up, “I - I’ll get Karen to drive me.”
Yes, that's smart. His mom. He wants his mom.
“I’ll... I’ll see you there,” he says, unable to bring himself to promise that everything is going to be alright.
She hangs up.
“Your mom?” Hen asks, and he sees that she’s now sat back a little. The EMT is still watching Nathan’s stats but it seems like there isn’t more they can do. He hopes that is a positive sign, instead of a very bad one.
He shakes his head. “His wife,” he mentions towards Nathan, squeezing his hand a little as a ghostly smile graces Nathan’s face.
“Ah,” Hen says, “they get younger and younger.”
“They’re kind of a special case,” Lucas jokes, managing a small smile himself.
“So how did this happen?” Chim joins in.
They all look at Nathan, but he stays silent, an expression on his face Luke can’t read. He feels the EMT's eyes turn to him.
“I - I don’t know,” Lucas whispers then, “I just heard a sound in the alley and found him like this.”
“You’re lucky you got a brother watching out for you,” Hen tells Nathan then, and she squeezes his shoulder a bit.
A loopy smile emerges on Nathan’s face, “yeah, he’s the best big brother.” Then a frown turns up on his face, worrying Lucas that something is wrong. It shadows the whole “best big brother thing” Nate said and then Nathan opens his mouth,-
“I wasn’t supposed to say that,” his little brother pouts.
It makes Hen laugh a little, “that’s the pain meds buddy. But don’t worry, we won’t tell.”
Nathan shakes his head, eyes drooping close, seeming to fall asleep.
“Is- Is that okay?” Luke asks, alarmed, feeling Nate’s hand go a little more slack in his.
“Yeah, judging by his injury and the stats, he’ll be thankful for this little nap once we get to the hospital,” Chim says.
“Is it bad? His leg?” Luke finds himself asking, “We’re supposed to play the state championship in a few days. He.. he’s the captain,” he rambles.
Hen and Chim look at each other, and no- that’s not a good look. And he sees Chim open his mouth to say something when the ambulance comes to a stop and the driver yells, “we’re here!”
In a hurry, they get Nathan, who wakes up dazed and confused in the process, out of the ambulance. Lucas follows, running into the hospital, and the question is forgotten.