Tree Hill
(based on season 2)
So here's what you might have missed about Tree Hill: Jake was arrested for not giving Jenny to Nicki, Coach Whitey took Jenny to safety. Nathan went to visit Haley, and well.... things didn't work out too well. And Brooke is living with Karen.
Before
When Ethan woke up in Andy's house, everything that had happened seemed to hit him. It wasn't a nightmare, it was reality. Andy appeared in the boy's room calling him to have breakfast together, and brought up the subject of Dan possibly being the boy's father. Andy would take the boy to Dan's car dealership so that Ethan could talk to Dan.
Ethan knocked on Dan's office door and the man looked up from his chair. Ethan looked exhausted, the boy didn't even have the strength to shout at Dan. The blond boy leaned against the door and walked over to sit in the chair facing Dan.
"Twice in one week? Should I get used to it, Ethan?" Dan asked with a smile on his face.
Ethan sighed and shook his head.
"I hope not." Ethan whispered and then looked at Dan.
Ethan remained silent as he analyzed Dan's features, trying to find any resemblance to the man. Hoping that he wouldn't find any resemblance, that there would be a neon sign on Dan's forehead saying: 'I'm not your father.
"Did you know?" Ethan muttered, picking at a lint on the sleeve of his shirt without looking in the man's direction.
"You'll have to be more specific, kid." Dan said.
Ethan swallowed dryly and stared at Dan.
"That you can be my father." Ethan's voice sounded like a whisper.
Dan widened his eyes, leaning back in his chair. When Dan heard that Veronica was pregnant, he asked the woman if there was any chance of the child being his, but Veronica denied it. Dan looked at Ethan, and just as the boy had done, Dan looked at Ethan for similarities with himself.
"No." Dan said dryly.
"I-I don't want anything from you, Dan. I just need to know the truth, so..." Ethan trailed off.
"You want to do a DNA test?" Ethan nodded.
Ethan excused himself and called Andy over so that he could explain to Dan what he had explained to the boy. If Dan was being the slightest bit kind to Ethan, that went down the drain when Andy entered the room and explained. Dan and Andy were being assholes to one another, when Ethan's voice cut them off.
"Dan, I don't trust you. I don't doubt your ability to manipulate test results just to cause drama, as if we were living in a Mexican soap opera. Please, I just want to know the truth. I don't want anything more than that."
Dan went along with the boy's request. Ethan didn't know if he was going to get an ulcer waiting for the test or the result of the test.
Dan would never say it out loud, but Dan was jealous of Keith. One of the reasons for Dan's envy of Keith was Keith's relationship with Ethan. Dan had never had anything close to Nathan, and even though Luke lived with him now, it was nowhere near what he had seen of Ethan and Keith's relationship. God, none of Dan's kids would act the way Ethan did when he found out about his plan to hurt Keith, or when Keith left, Dan's kids would be happy if he left. And maybe, Dan could only blame himself, the man thought. For a moment, Dan wondered if the outcome was positive, if Ethan really wouldn't want a relationship with him.
However, Dan saw the way Andy was acting with Ethan. Dan saw Andy walking away with the boy, hugging him and making jokes, trying to cheer him up. Dan thought that maybe he hadn't even needed to hire Jules, taking Ethan away from Keith would have done a lot more damage.
What Dan would never understand is that Ethan could never be taken away from Keith. The love the boy feels for his father is far greater than any crazy plan Dan could come up with.
[....]
Now
Nathan showed up with Cooper at Andy's house to pick him up for an adventure. Nathan heard from Emma that the boy wasn't very well, so he asked his uncle Cooper to include Luke and Ethan. Ethan looked at Nathan and Cooper, not understanding why Nathan was there.
Nathan noticed Ethan's confused face and introduced him to Cooper, then explained what they were going to do. Ethan didn't feel much like it, but then Nathan spoke again.
"Ethan, trust me. You don't want to miss out, and if you don't go, I'll take Emma with me."
Ethan stared at the boy.
"Nate, you need to get over the fact that my girlfriend is my girlfriend." Ethan had almost let out a 'get yourself a girlfriend', but luckily Ethan had thought it through before opening his mouth.
Ethan, Nathan and Luke were going to a race track where Cooper runs. Ethan had no idea that Nathan had a cool uncle. Ethan still wasn't talking properly to Luke, and Nathan still had no idea that Ethan might be his brother.
"So, Coop, how great is it that you get to race cars for a living?" Luke asked.
"You know, fame, money, extremely hot wives." Cooper replied.
"Ex-wives." Nathan corrected.
"Look who's talking." Cooper said, and then showed the boys the race track. "I'll tell you what, there's only one view better than this one." Coop said. "That one." Cooper pointed to a car that was racing around the track.
Cooper took the three teenagers to see the cars, and even introduced Jeff Burton to them. Cooper also showed them their car on the track, which was being driven by Daytona, and apparently Nathan knew it.
Daytona took them to her brother Jarret.
"Hey, I'm Lucas. Nathan's brother."
"So, like your mom's is Cooper's sister?" Jarret asked.
"Oh, my mom slept with Cooper's sister's husband." Lucas explained, making Ethan laugh.
"Okay, that sounds messed up." Jarret said.
"I'm Ethan, their cousin."
Luke glanced at Ethan, knowing that there was a possibility that Ethan was actually his and Nathan's brother. However, Luke decided to keep quiet.
"You guys want to drive them?" Cooper asked the boys.
"Are you serious?" Ethan and Nathan asked together.
"Yeah. You can take a crash course today. Learn about the cars and the track. You can spend the night and race tomorrow. How about it?" Cooper asked.
"Dude, I'm so there." Luke said.
"Okay. It's unfair that Nathan has you for an uncle, and I have Dan." Ethan said, making Cooper laugh.
Luke looked at Ethan, seeing that the boy was trying hard to make jokes and not let Nathan know that something was bothering him.
Daytona was in charge of teaching Luke and Nathan, Ethan was supposed to be along but Jarret went instead. Ethan went with Cooper, to teach him a few things and rules about driving. Ethan felt better with just him and Cooper in the car, Ethan seemed to be getting suffocated with the situation about Dan, and being in a race car with three other people didn't seem like a good idea to the boy.
"Ethan, focus." Cooper drew the boy's attention.
"Sorry."
[....]
Emma, Peyton and Brooke went to Tric to meet Karen. Brooke was helping Emma not to let her sister be swallowed up by the sadness that the situation with Jake was causing.
The three girls sat down next to the counter where Karen was, with Peyton between Emma and Brooke.
"Hi, Peyton. How's Jake?" Karen asked.
"The same." Peyton replied.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Karen asked.
"Sure. You can tell my sister and Brooke that I'm fine." Peyton nudged Emma and stared at Brooke, causing Brooke to stick her tongue out at the girl.
"Actually, I was a little worried about you, too. So we thought we'd all spend the day together." Karen said.
"Okay, I love you all for all the caring but kind of creepy attention you've been giving me. But what's wrong with wearing a little misery now and then? This whole thing sucks for Jake. And why can't I be bummed for a little bit, you know?" Peyton asked.
The three women looked at Peyton. Emma was afraid that Peyton would end up turning to drugs again, to try to numb the pain the situation was causing.
"You can totally be bummed." Brooke said.
"You just have to do it with us." Emma said, followed by Brooke.
"And do really fun stuff while you're bumming." Brooke added.
The girls heard Tric's door opening, and Deb appeared all dressed up.
"How you doing...boozy?" Karen asked.
"Great, actually. As a matter of fact, I'm turning over a new leaf." Deb said and then sat down next to Brooke. "From now on, I'm looking at the bright side of things staying positive." Deb said.
Karen looked at Deb.
"Oh, Dan paid Jules to seduce Keith." Karen said.
All four women looked at Deb.
"Life sucks. I need a drink." Deb said.
"Oh, there's more. Dan told him Ethan's mother's name."
Oh Oh, Emma hoped Karen wouldn't tell Deb that straight away. Ethan didn't even know how to deal with information, and with waiting for the result. Ethan wouldn't know how to deal with people expecting something from him on the subject. Emma hoped that Ethan would at least talk to Nathan, since Ethan still wasn't talking properly to Luke.
"Okay, what's wrong with that?" Deb asked.
"Nothing!" Emma shouted.
"Ok....." Brooke said.
Emma looked at Karen and began to shook her head. Karen understood Emma's message. Deb then went to make her a drink.
Deb had already had a few drinks and the girls looked at Deb.
"I miss Nathan." Deb said.
"I miss Keith." Karen said.
Oh, Ethan misses the man too. Emma thought.
"I miss Jake." Peyton said.
"I don't really miss Felix, at all or my parents that much." Brooke said.
Emma looked at her friend, now sitting next to her and Deb next to Peyton. Emma hugged Brooke.
"Thank God. Felix didn't deserve you, Brooke Penelope Davis." Emma said.
Deb, Karen, Peyton and Brooke looked at Emma.
"What? Is there something on my face?" Emma asked, wiping her hand across her face.
"Don't you miss anyone?" Karen asked.
"Oh." Emma wilted in her chair. "I miss Ethan whenever I'm not around him, but I know that the trip with Nathan, Luke and Coop might do him some good." Emma recounted.
Deb couldn't take her eyes off Emma. The woman found their relationship adorable, and she found it even more incredible how maturely the two of them had coped when Emma left on tour, but returned in time before the boy's life was turned upside down.
"How's Ethan, Emma?" Deb asked.
"Uhm..." Emma paused. "Not very well." Emma said without giving much explanation.
Brooke began to pat Emma's arm.
"Oh, Emm's. When Ethan gets back we should do a girls' night with him." Brooke said excitedly.
Emma and Peyton stared at Brooke.
"What?"
"Yeah, face masks, ice cream, movies. We could even put on an action movie, if that's what Ethan likes." Brooke said smiling.
Emma smiled as Peyton laughed. Emma was happy that her best friend cared about the boy to the point of wanting to do something to cheer him up or distract him. And Emma was pretty sure that if Brooke asked Ethan to a girls' night out, Ethan wouldn't refuse, he might be confused, but he would accept.
"You know what I miss? My money." Brooke said, making the women laugh.
"You know what I always do when I need to feel better?" Deb asked, and Brooke promptly answered.
"Drink?"
Emma, Peyton and Karen stared at Brooke. Emma held back a laugh.
"No. Dance." Deb said.
Deb ran over and put on some music, the girls laughed at the way Deb danced until the woman ran over and pulled Peyton up to dance. Brooke and Emma held hands and asked Karen to dance.
"Come on, Karen. Dance to my divorcee." Deb shouted calling Karen to come on the dance floor.
"Oh, hell. I can dance to that." Karen said, going over to the other women to dance.
While dancing with Brooke, Peyton, Deb and Karen, the girl managed to put her worries about everything to one side. Emma felt like she was about to explode, she was always helping the people she loved, she was always worrying about everyone. Emma knew that the world and the problems were still there, but there dancing she could laugh and enjoy herself for a moment.
[....]
Nathan had left Daytona and Luke after she sang the song that reminded him of Haley. The sky was dark, a little chilly and as he walked around the track, Nathan found Ethan far away smoking a cigarette.
"You know an athlete shouldn't smoke, right?" Nathan asked, forcing a smile.
Ethan stubbed out his cigarette and looked at his cousin.
"Only when I feel stressed out, Nate." Ethan said.
Ethan was looking up at the sky, able to see some stars in the sky.
"You've been quieter than usual, Ethan." Nathan sat down next to the boy on the floor.
"I met my mother." Ethan confessed.
Nathan's eyes widened, not knowing how to react to this information. Was it a good thing, a bad thing? But seeing the state Ethan was in, maybe it wasn't a good thing.
"That bad?" Nathan asked.
"Worse." Ethan muttered.
Nathan touched his cousin's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"I'm here if you need to talk." Nathan said.
"You're going to hate me." Ethan whispered.
"What? No, I'm not going." Nathan said awkwardly. "Wait, did you hurt Emma?"
Ethan interrupted him.
"I didn't hurt Emm's, Nate." Ethan looked at him. "It's not about her, it's...."
Ethan took a deep breath and motioned for Nathan to walk with him.
"She has a family, and I'm not part of it. I could deal with that, you know?" Ethan said. "It sucks, but that's not all."
"Ethan, this sucks already." Nate said about the situation.
"Oh, trust me, it gets worse." Ethan said and then gathered his courage. "Dan could be my father." Ethan had stopped walking, Nathan stopped soon after and stared at him.
"What?!"
Ethan closed his eyes and sighed. Ethan didn't have the best relationship with Nate, but they were working on it. Ethan didn't want to lose Nate's friendship over it, just as Ethan didn't want to be Dan's son.
"Is that serious?" Ethan nodded. "Holy shit, Ethan."
Ethan looked into Nathan's eyes and tilted his head sideways.
"Aren't you angry?"
Nathan took a step closer to his cousin.
"Ethan, why would I be angry that you might be my brother?" Nate asked without understanding. "I mean, the whole situation with your mother must be shit already, Keith's gone and now Dan might be your father. You are problably mad at the world." Nathan said.
Ethan put his hands in his pants pockets and walked back with Nate.
"I am." Ethan muttered, Nathan turned his head towards the boy. "Angry, upset, annoyed with the universe."
"I think I would be too." Nathan said. "If, from one moment to the next, there was a chance that my father would be Dan Scott."
The two teenagers looked at each other and laughed humorlessly at the fucked-up situation Ethan was in.
"Ethan, I hope you're not." Nathan said. "I wouldn't want you to be Dan's son, because well... Dan is Dan." Nathan explained, and then slung his arm around his cousin's shoulder. "But if you're my brother, welcome to the club."
"I'd rather just stay your cousin, Nate. No offense." Ethan said and Nathan shrugged.
"None taken."
The boys met up with Cooper, Ethan left Nathan to continue talking to Cooper and stayed behind, taking the opportunity to call Emma and talk to the girl.
[....]
"Alright. Five cars, three laps. You can all talk on an open frequency in your helmets. Now, if you get a little squirrelly out there just take your foot off the gas, dowshift and come into the pits or pull the car on the inside apron. There's a tach in your car, it tells you the RPM. When it hits 'six', you're up around 140 miles an hour, nobody goes to 'seven'. Got it?" Ray, the man who works with Cooper explained.
"Alright, Jarret will lead you out in the pace car. Jarret, don't wreck the pace car." Ray said.
The problem with all this is that Ethan and Nathan shouldn't have gotten into the racing cars. The two teenagers weren't emotionally stable enough.
During the race, Nathan and Ethan managed to overtake Cooper, with Nathan leading. There's nothing wrong with that, apart from Cooper's bruised ego. The problem is that the two teenagers kept driving, even though all the voices told them to turn back, but neither teenager registered.
Ethan knew that Luke, Cooper and the others were trying to talk to him and Nathan. Ray had said that no one should go to seven, but at the speed Ethan was going, so was Nathan. Ethan's vision was getting blurry because of the tears, Cooper said that running used to help him heal, so why wasn't it helping him? Why didn't anything the boy did stop the pain?
Ethan couldn't bear to feel it anymore. The rejection, the anger, the sadness.
No one should feel a parent's rejection, but Ethan felt Veronica's rejection, he felt that Keith had rejected him by leaving, and Dan? Hell, if Dan was his father, he would never care about Ethan.
The anger at discovering that he hadn't been enough for Veronica to even try to be a mother to him. Anger at discovering that Keith had lied to him all his life, and had left him alone. Anger at the possibility of Dan being something other than a shitty uncle.
Sadness.
Ethan imagined that people would be better off without him, people wouldn't have to worry about him. The boy felt that he was a nuisance in people's lives. The blond boy then imagined that he could make everything stop.
But then, the reasons for not making everything stop came into his mind. All the happy memories he had with Keith, Emma, Brooke and Peyton, Nathan and Lucas, Karen and finally Andy appeared like a movie. As Ethan slowed down, he heard a noise. Ethan braked the car, skidded a little on the road and saw the car Nathan was in.
Ethan ran out of the car, Cooper and Lucas arrived right behind him. Cooper helped Ethan get Nathan out of the car, which was on fire.
"Nathan." Ethan and Lucas called out to the boy who was lying unconscious on Ethan's lap.
[....]
Ethan and Lucas were with Cooper, waiting to hear from Nathan. Deb and Dan had arrived at the hospital wanting to know what had happened. A doctor went to talk to the couple, and before Dan went to his son.
"You better pray he's okay." Dan said to Cooper.
Ethan moved away a little, but Cooper went after the boy.
"Ethan." Cooper caught his eye.
Ethan lowered his head, sitting on the floor. The blond boy felt ashamed of what he had thought of doing, of letting Cooper, and all the people he loves, feel guilty for something they couldn't control.
"It's not your fault, Coop." Ethan muttered.
Cooper sat down next to the boy and looked in Ethan's direction.
"I have my doubts. What were you thinking out there?" Cooper asked, keeping his voice down.
Ethan looked at Cooper.
"I know it's not your fault, Coop. Nathan wanted to do it, I know because...." Ethan whispered.
"You almost did the same." Cooper said, making the boy nod. "What stopped you? Because you didn't answer us once." Cooper said carefully.
"I remembered that I still have people who love me." Ethan murmured. "I'm sorry, Coop."
Cooper squeezed the boy's arm, not knowing what to say.
"I'm sorry too, kiddo."
Ethan and Cooper heard Karen's voice calling for Luke, Ethan saw the woman hug Luke and check that everything was okay, when he felt an arm pulling him. Ethan was enveloped in a hug. It took a few seconds for Ethan to realize that it was Andy hugging him, checking that Ethan was in one piece.
"I think we'll have to include it in the rules: no racing cars." Andy muttered.
Ethan smiled weakly and murmured, still hugging Andy.
"Sorry, Andy."
[....]
Luke had told Brooke what had happened to Nathan, Brooke picked Emma up from the girl's house and the two teenagers went to the hospital.
Emma found Ethan far away from Luke, leaning against Andy. Watching the scene, Emma was happy that Ethan was letting Andy be part of his life and that Andy was treating the boy with such affection.
Ethan met Emma's eyes, the boy felt so tired that he just allowed himself to be made into a sandwich and hugged on either side by Emma and Andy. Andy walked away, leaving the two teenagers hugging.
"Are you all right?" Emma whispered.
Ethan looked into his girlfriend's eyes, he loved the tone of the girl's eyes, but he hated knowing that it was the reason those eyes were looking at him so worriedly.
"I'm going to be fine, Emm's." Ethan whispered back, earning a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Have you heard from Nate?" Ethan denied. "He'll be fine." Emma said, praying it was true.
Ethan held Emma's hand and whispered the same.
"He'll be fine."