Title: Everyone Has A Secret

Author: Majandra

Email: flavorlesschocolate@hotmail.com

Pairing: If you're still asking that, reading my stories, you need the kind of help I can't give you.

Rating: PG for kissing (and R18 for risk of death by boredom)

Disclaimer: They're not mine. The real owners use them much better than I ever could. Testament to this is the piece of crap you're about to read.

Distribution: Realm of the Shadow can have it. Cos I don't want it. Anyone else ask, because though I hate it, I still wrote it. And I tend to get touchy about thievery over the net. Doesn't everyone?

Did I remember everything? Probably not. Here goes nothing...

It had all began three months ago, back in September, when things were still coming back to normal after the accident. Brooke was just, at that point, coming out of the hospital, and she had changed. Changed to the extent that when Nicole came to pick her up to take her out, with a chauffeur-driven car since her license had been revoked, Brooke had started whimpering and saying she wanted to stay with Sam…

~*~*~

"Hey, Brookie, you ready to go to the movies? I hear it's going to be a good one," Nicole said carefully. Stepping inside the door of the Palace, she walked over to Brooke, and laid a hand on her arm. "Let's go, B."

"No," Brooke whimpered. Nicole looked confused, and tried to pull her into a hug.

"It's okay, Brookie, I'm not going to run you down again. I'm not going to be the one driving this time, remember?" Making soothing noises, she pulled the taller blonde in but Brooke struggled, eventually making so much noise that Sam came down the stairs to investigate.

"What's going on?" she inquired. Both blondes turned to her, and Brooke promptly burst into tears.

"Sammy," she wailed, and held out her arms. Sam ran to her, not knowing what the problem was but knowing she was going to do her best to fix it. Wrapping the sobbing blonde in her arms, she turned to what seemed to be the problem.

"Nicole, what did you do to her?"

For once, Nicole didn't have a snide remark for Sam. She seemed genuinely confused as to why Brooke was acting this way. "I don't know, Spam, I just got here and asked her if she was ready to go to the movies, and she went nuts. I don't think she wants to go with me anymore."

"Well, that fact is abundantly clear," remarked Sam, dryly. "Maybe you should go."

"I think that may be a good idea," Nicole muttered, sending one last bemused look at the crying Brooke. "See ya round, Brookie."

As the door closed behind her, Sam led Brooke over to the sofa and sat her down. Brooke seemed reluctant to let Sam go, and Sam certainly wasn't complaining. It felt nice to be needed for once. "Are you going to tell me what the problem is now, Princess?"

"Sammy," Brooke whimpered, burying her face in Sam's chest. "My Sammy. Don't leave me, okay?"

"Okay," Sam said carefully. "Why am I not leaving you?"

"Because I need you."

~*~*~

It had progressed from there, basically. The two girls who used to be mortal enemies had been brought together by this horrific accident, much to the surprise of both of them. And when Brooke needed someone to accompany her to her doctor's appointments, it wasn't Jane or Mike she chose. It was Sam.

Sam, for her part, was more than happy to be Brooke's special friend in place of Nicole. Everyone likes to feel needed, and at the moment Sam felt as though she was needed more than anything else. Actually, it was almost as if Brooke's world would collapse if Sam wasn't around. Well, that's what it seemed like.

One day, about two or three months after this last incident with Nicole, the two of them were lounging on the couch and watching a movie. Brooke was resting her shoulder on Sam's shoulder and Sam in turn was resting her head on the top of Brooke's head. It was a picture perfect moment.

Torrance was performing a series of screw-ups in the movie, and Sam sighed. Brooke picked up on this immediately.

"Why the sigh, Sammy girl?" she asked innocently, not moving from her position. Sam lifted her head and put an arm around Brooke.

"I can't stand watching them, knowing they're not going to get together, when it's obvious how much Missy feels for Torrance. It's just not fair on Missy. Why do the blonde girls always play the lead roles, and the brunettes always get left suffering from unrequited love?"

Brooke sat up now, and turned off the DVD. "That's not always true," she protested gently. "Can you name any other movies that back up your hypothesis?"

Sam thought. "Coyote Ugly. Rachel was totally crushing on Cammie, it would have been cute had it not been so heartbreaking."

Brooke pondered this a moment. "Anything else? Cos that's still only two."

"Sabrina the teenage witch, Roxy pining after Sabrina herself. That's adorable. I'd love to step into that world and play matchmaker there."

"You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you," Brooke asked, rhetorically. "Do you ever stop to wonder why all the so called couples you've quoted are girl-girl?"

"I hadn't thought about it, actually," Sam lied, looking down. Brooke lifted the brunette's chin and forced their eyes to meet, and saw that Sam's lower lip was trembling. A quick glance showed Sam's eyes glossy with tears.

"What's the matter baby?" Brooke asked her gently.

"Brooke, I'm gay," Sam whispered, letting the tears flow. Brooke pulled her against her chest and rocked her back and forth.

"You want to know what your best quality is?" she asked into thin air as Sam cried. "Well, truthfully, you don't have ONE. You have a lot. One is your honesty. Can you think of anyone who is as honest as you? I can't. Nobody else I know would have had the courage to tell me that, and nobody else I know would have chosen me as their confidant. That's something special, Sam. Whether you believe it or not."

Sam still wasn't responding, but her tears were slowing. Brooke kept going.

"What about your strength? I would have never made it through the accident and the consequential recovery without you, Sammy. You were my rock, my tower. I looked to you when I didn't think I could possibly take another step, when I couldn't face another day. You were there, and you were all I needed. And the thing I love most about you? You make me feel safe. I don't know what exactly it is about you, but when I'm with you, when we're hugging, or even just sitting like this, I feel like nothing can harm me. Not even Nicole with any one of her expensive cars. You're home to me, Sam. And I love you for that."

Sam by now had stopped crying, but was still uncharacteristically quiet. Brooke waited. Eventually, it came.

"So what does this mean? You're not going to disown me now that you know I'm gay?"

"God how could I?" Brooke asked, kissing the top of Sam's head. "I just told you, no one makes me feel as safe as you. I won't lie and say this doesn't change anything, because it's going to, no matter what. But it won't change the important things! You'll still be my best friend, and I hope I'll be yours, and we can still do everything together! And now I can stop trying to set you up with guys and concentrate on what you really want – girls."

"Hug please," Sam sniffled, leaning into Brooke. Brooke complied.

"I love the way you make me feel," Brooke whispered. "I love that you just accept me, and I feel like I don't have to pretend around you. I love that the whole popular façade doesn't mean a thing to you, and I'm just me, and you love me for me. You're the best friend a girl could have, you know that?"

Time passed and both girls went back to school. Their paths seemed to cross more now that they were real friends, and not enemies. Every now and then they went out of their ways to sit together for lunch or do something after school. Their friends from before the accident saw less and less of both Sam and Brooke as they began to neglect old friends for each other.

An assignment caught them by surprise, and forced them to drop their shopping plans for the afternoon to go to the library and work on it. Both of them were cursing the Claw as they climbed the stairs to the top floor of the public library, which contained both the books and the study bay they were going to need to get it done.

Sam helped Brooke up the last few steps as her leg was giving way. The accident found ways to remind everyone that it had indeed happened, and the little reminders, though they were getting fewer and fewer, were still there. They split up at the top of the stairs; Brooke going for books while Sam went to snag them a study bay.

Each study bay was a desk and two chairs. Sam settled herself, and as Brooke appeared carrying a pile of books, she smiled.

The assignment was done in about an hour. Both stretched and grinned at each other. "Now what?" Sam asked. Brooke had a secret smile of her own.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she announced. "Wait for me here?"

"Okay."

Brooke did indeed go to the bathroom. But it wasn't to heed the call of nature. It was to pop a couple of mints and mentally prepare for what she was about to do.

In the car on the way home, Brooke was very quiet. Sam wasn't sure what to make of it. But when Brooke pulled over on the side of the road and turned to face her, Sam stopped worrying. Suddenly she felt an eerie sort of calm.

"Everyone has a secret," Brooke began, looking Sam in the eye. "Yours was the whole gay thing. Mine… Well, I'm about to share mine with you."

"What is it?" Sam asked, trying not to seem too eager.

"This," Brooke replied, bringing her lips to meet Sam's. For a moment Brooke was doing all the kissing, because Sam was too stunned to do anything. She recovered quickly however, and kissed back with equal passion. For a moment they were able to forget they were in the car on the side of a reasonably busy side street. There was nothing but Brooke and Sam.

Pulling apart Sam looked at Brooke. "Your secret was kissing me?" she asked, confused.

"No, doofus!" Brooke giggled sultrily. "My secret was wanting to kiss you. I… I love you, Sammy."

"I have another secret," Sam confessed. "I love you too."

"Then it's settled. Everyone has a secret, and we just found out each others," Brooke said with finality, bringing her lips back to Sam's. "And long may we exploit the knowledge we have discovered this day." This last was said with mock seriousness, and Sam giggled suddenly, breaking the heavy mood.

"Amen to that!"