Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction so I hope you will all be kind :) please review becuase i would love to know what you think

I do not own the show and only take responsibility for my own ideas.


He looks at the sleeping figure next to him and can remember how it used to be. She sleeps now as if she has battled the world too long and can stand it no longer, her shoulders hunched and her legs curled up to her chest, her back towards him. The nights of whispered secrets and love letters seem a fond and far distant memory and that feeling of invincible hope, the confidence that together they could conquer the world has drifted away to be replaced by awe consuming doubt.

He knows it's because of him that it all changed. He can pinprick the very moment in time when he saw pain, rather than love, reflected in her eyes, and he would give up everything to not have to see that pain again. He would give up anything to cradle her in his arms. But he wonders if it's simply too late. So he reaches over and moves a strand of chestnut hair that has fallen over her face and at the touch her whole body relaxes.

"Lucas" she sighs tiredly, rolling over to face him.

"Brooke?" he whispers cupping her face in his hand and running a thumb over her cheekbone. But she does not reply and he realises that she is still asleep. Something in her dreams makes her frown slightly and he smoothes away the wrinkles on her forehead wondering how long it has been since he touched her. How long it had been since she has let him. He remembers a time when lovemaking and stolen kisses had been their specialty.

"Lucas Eugene Scott you are not allowed to see her before the wedding." Hayley informs him from in front of Brooke's dressing room "Now aren't you supposed to be getting ready or something?"

"Come on, Hales!" he pleads." I just need to check that she's okay"

"No Lucas. I'm not going to be th-"

"It's alright Hayley. I've never been superstitious." Brooke says, emerging from the forbidden door " I figure that everything's already been done to pull us apart so we're safe now" she shrugs and smiles the smile that manages to be both sexy and amazingly trusting

He swears he's never seen a more beautiful sight than her on their wedding day, with her chestnut hair twisted and piled onto the top of her head and her lips ruby red. She swishes forwards him in her fairytale gown and rests her hands on his chest.

"What's up soon-to-be Husband?" she smiles up at him

"I just thought you should know you've stolen my heart Brooke Davis."

Everyone had said they were too young to get married. Too young to make a decision that would shape the remainder of their lives. But standing at that alter Lucas had never felt so sure of anything in his life and when his heart stopped in his chest at the sight of her walking down that aisle he was sure that this feeling was forever. He smiled at her and she winked back, laughter shining in her eyes.

And so the childhood, small town sweethearts had gone to take on the big city, ready to make a name in the world that had not always treated them kindly. Lucas got a position in a small league basketball team hoping to make it into the NBL while Brooke designed clothes and became ever increasingly more successful.

"Brooke?" he calls out into their apartment, closing the door softly behind him

"Crap!" comes an aggravated voice from inside the kitchen followed by the various sounds of pots and pans clashing. He follows the noises to the kitchen and smiles at the sight of his wife attempting to pull a cake tin out of the smoke filled oven. Her hair is tied loosely with a ribbon behind her and strands are falling out onto her face which is accented by the occasional patch of flour. She is wearing a floral dress that is by no means designed for cooking with an apron tied around her waist.

"Lucas!" she says just realising he was home. She walks over to him miserably "You weren't meant to be here for another hour. I was going to make a cake and a nice dinner for you because we never get to see each other because we're so busy and now it's all ruined." she let out in despair, burying her face in his chest.

He wraps his arms around her and rests his chin on her head. They stay there for a moment, ignoring the smoke seeping through the cracks of the oven.

"Hey, Pretty Girl, we don't need a fancy home cooked meal to spend time together. And let's face it," he puts a finger under her chin and raises her head to look at him "I didn't marry you because of your cake making abilities." A smile breaks its way reluctantly onto her face and he smiles at her dimples.

"How do you always know what to say?" she wonders up at him

"It's a special talent I have." Lucas grins in reply, wrapping his arms around her waist

"You know I have a couple of special talents myself." she smiles naughtily up at him

"Oh you do, do you?"

"If you're very, very nice I might just show you one of two of them." she shrugs and taps him on the nose with her oven mitt. "They are very special talents after all."

He always knew that she was bold and brave and beautiful and talented and special but he hadn't counted on the world figuring it out too. They played tug-a–war for her- Lucas versus New York for her time and energy. The city pulled her to red carpet events and galas and fashion shows but she didn't want to be pulled if it meant she was pulled away from Lucas and so she would shrug and raise her eyebrow suggestively and say "maybe next time" and would come home and curl up beside Lucas instead. She loved her clothes and her job and her exiting friends, but she loved Lucas more. So she waved away the life she could have had for a chance at something more.

But soon the scouts realised that Lucas was just what they needed for the NBL and Brooke could do nothing but watch as he got dragged away from her and into a world of cheerleaders and drinking and parties. A world which used to feel as comfortable as her own skin but which now made her wary. But she watched the light shine in his eyes as he shot the winning basket and realised that she did not have the heart to ask him to give it up for her. That even though he would hand in his resignation if she asked him, she had to let him go and conquer the world like he had always dreamed of.

It hurt too much to watch him covered in cheerleaders and adoring female fans so she had begun to skip the after parties and victory celebrations in favour of a solitary night at home. She wished that one, just once, he would realise how achingly sad she was and spend the night with her instead. But he never did. It became like clockwork that Lucas would stumble through the door in the early hours of the morning and clamber into bed. He was never drunk, he was never that kind of guy, but Brooke knew even as he held her tight to his body that he could be happy without her in a way that she could never be without him.

And she looked at her life with a bitter yearning for what should have been. She had lost her business and her friends and now she had lost Lucas. He had always told her that she was the strongest person he knew, but Lucas had always been her weakness. The one guy she had ever given a rat's ass about. And she hated him for making her weak. Hated him for making her feel this way. Hated him for making her love him so fully that he made her heart ache.

In a state of semi-consciousness she realises that he is touching her. That he is stroking her cheek and her lips and whispering apologies to the dark. And it is only when his arms engulf her and drag her to his chest that the tears which have threatened to drown her these past months at last cascade down her cheeks, because she had forgotten how safe she feels in his arms. He begins to rock her back and forwards gently as her sobs rack her tiny frame. He kisses her forehead gently and then the tears on her cheek and her collarbone and at last her lips with a sense of urgency he knows they both feel. For a second she forgets that past months and allows herself to be kissed but she pulls away.

He looks at her with a hollow look in his eyes and she desperately wants to kiss it away but knows that it will only make things more complicated.

"You've stolen my heart Lucas Scott," she says with a finality that eats away at her soul "But I think I need it back."