A/N This idea popped into my head after I finished the first part of Tip of My Tongue. (For those of who read that you will be happy to know I am working on a second part told from Julian's POV. Thank you for all of your lovely reviews and interest for more of that story.) Anyway, I kind of feel this was rushed even though I have been working on it for several weeks now. I hope when you read this you will not feel the same. If you do feel that way please let me know and I can only promise to make sure that all future chapters will not have that same feeling. I am anxious to post this so I can move on and tell the rest of the story but that doesn't stop me from questioning the quality of my work. I hope this is just me being paranoid, lol. I supposed I have stalled enough…I hope you enjoy this!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with OTH, though there are times I wish I did. :)

Chapter One: Parents Weekend

Brooke had spent the afternoon catching up with her daughter, who had spent the past month attending college over two thousand miles away from their home in North Carolina. The two women were settled on the red couch Sam had picked out as one of her high school graduation presents, when a knock on the door interrupted their present girl talk about a guy Sam had recently met in one of her classes. Brooke was anxious to hear all the details based on the glimmer in her daughters eyes at the mere mention of someone special in her life.

Sam jumped up and made a quick exit into her bedroom as she asked "would you mind getting that mom? I have to grab my purse in the bedroom and then we can leave."

"Sure," Brooke crossed the room and opened the front door and resisted the urge to slam it immediately shut upon discovering who Sam's visitor was. She gripped the door frame hard as she stared at her ex-boyfriend, who was looking as gorgeous as ever, damn him! A dozen emotions instantly assaulted her but she ignored every single one because to do otherwise would mean admitting to how much seeing him again disturbed her. After what seemed like the longest stretch of silence ever Brooke finally asked quietly, "Julian what are you doing here?"

"I am here for the official tour of the school, followed by dinner."

"So you knew about this?" She accused.

He shrugged. "It was important to her."

Brooke turned around not bothering to invite him inside as she yelled, "Samantha Nicole Walker Davis!"

Sam entered the room mumbling, "could have been Baker."

Brooke's eyes narrowed at her comment. "What was that?" She asked certain she couldn't have heard her daughter correctly.

"Nothing," Sam answered, though her eyes caught Julian's, who now stood behind Brooke. He apparently heard her quite clearly because he had a smirk on his face and was shaking his head at her. "Carry on, I believe you were about to lecture me."

"How could you ambush me like this?" She demanded in total frustration with the young girl's attitude.

"What is the big deal? So he is your ex. Same as Lucas, yet you have no problem hanging out with him. Why can't you spend the weekend with Julian, hanging out with me?"

"It is not that simple." Brooke replied.

"No because you're making it complicated. You both claim to be over one another so why don't you prove it. You are both important to me and it is Parents Weekend. You are my mom and Julian is the closest thing I have ever had to a father so I thought the two of you could get over yourselves for two days and spend the weekend with me. My bad for mistaking the two of you for being actual adults." Sam shouted before storming passed the two of them and out the front door leaving Brooke and Julian staring at one another awkwardly and wondering how things could have escalated so quickly in just a few minutes time.

"I will go after her." Julian offered.

"No, let me. I am the one she is pissed off at anyway." She sighed as she walked out of the apartment in search of her daughter. She was grateful for the excuse to put some distance between them. She hadn't realized how small Sam's apartment was until he had showed up.

Julian took the time to process his thoughts. Even though he had known Brook was going to be here nothing could have prepared him for the emotions that surged through him when his eyes caught first sight of her. He had forgotten how stunning she was, so much so that she literally took his breath away. He knew Sam hadn't informed her of his joining them even before she asked the question. Her gorgeous face and wonderfully expressive hazel eyes betrayed her shock. He had to admit that Sam should have warned her. Though he was not sure how much that would have helped since he had advance knowledge of the meeting and yet that failed to give any advantage when he was actually face to face with the woman who shattered his heart.

He had to admit her reaction had somewhat surprised him. While he hadn't exactly been expecting a friendly reunion, he hadn't exactly anticipated the chilly reception Brooke had greeted him with. He was the one who had forfeited his pride and risked his heart over and over again for her only to be rejected every single time. If anyone had the right to be angry or whatever the hell she was, it was him.

Julian got no further in his thoughts as he heard the door open behind him and he turned expecting to see both his girls coming through the entrance, no they were not his, he corrected silently. One hadn't been for a long time now, by her choice, he reminded himself, furious with his mental slip.

"No luck?" He surmised.

Brooke shook her head. "There wasn't any sign of her by the time I made it down to the lobby. I would have gone looking for her but I don't know much about her life here. That is what this weekend was all about."

"Would you like me to help you look for her? I know of a couple of places where she might be since I gave her a few ideas of where to hang out when she first arrived."

"Thanks but I think I should let her have her space. She isn't a troubled teen anymore." Brooke replied.

Her words brought them both back to the night Samantha had gone missing after Sam discovered the terrifying fact that her careless words had been the trigger for a violent attack on Brooke at her boutique late one night. Brooke had been frantically looking for her all over town and had run into Julian at the diner. When she had asked if he was looking for Sam as well he had responded that he wasn't that guy, he was just getting some coffee. But then the waitress had informed her that he had just been in inquiring the same thing she had. Brooke had gone after him and had found him walking down the street tossing the full coffee cup away and that was the moment that Brooke began to look at him as something other than a threat to two of her best friend's happiness.

There were so many questions he wanted to ask her. How many times had he wondered about her in the past two and a half years and now that he finally had the chance to talk with her he just felt the need to put distance between them because he was afraid of what would come out of his mouth. He knew if he dared to ask they would be uncomfortable questions and he wasn't certain he was willing to hear her answers.

Julian was the first to break the silence as he said, "I guess I should be going then. Tell Sam I will call her later on. It was good seeing you. Take care of yourself Brooke." He replied casually as he made his way toward the door.

Seeing him was stirring up all the emotions she had struggled to keep locked inside her for so long. With the emotions warring for some kind of release, Brooke chose to embrace the emotion that would protect her the most, resentment. She should have let him leave but she for some reason she couldn't resist saying out loud "I really should not have been surprised about today. I should have expected her to pull something like this. She always has been our biggest cheerleader!"

Julian turned back around to face her. "She is right you know. Her last name could have been Baker. Same as your could have been." He replied more than ready to meet the challenge Brooke had thrown out to him.

"Is that what you have been telling her?"

"I didn't have to. She is smart enough to figure it out on her own."

"Yeah well she doesn't know the whole story now, does she?"

"If she does, she didn't hear it from me." That was one thing Julian was very careful about. He would never put Sam in between whatever was or wasn't going on with Brooke. It would not have been fair, just as it wasn't fair when Brooke had used Sam as an excuse to keep him at a distance. "But she probably has an idea that you threw it all away because you were so stubborn and too scared."

"She probably also has an idea that you were arrogant and impatient wanting all or nothing after only three months of dating!" Brooke charged.

"And that is a bad thing? You are the one who said you couldn't do just fun. When I got serious about you, you said I thought we were just having fun. You said it always sucks to be the footnote in someone else's story and yet when I gave you the chance to write your own, you hid behind everything you could think of, Sam, Peyton, Lucas."

"Don't you dare! You pushed Lucas between us! You were looking for evidence of my love for him where none existed. You let your past history influence what could have been."

"No more than you did!" He fired back.

Brooke was a bit shocked at his heated response and was at a momentary loss for words. In all of their time together, he had never once really even raised his voice to her, not in their worst moments, when there was so much pain between them and all she could do was hurt him to protect herself. She wanted to argue against his words but how could she when even she recognized them as truth.

Julian took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself before their discussion intensified further. None of it mattered anymore anyway. The fact that neither one had made any effort to contact the other proved that much as far as he was concerned. Nothing could be gained by discussing past events. "As I said, I think it is best if I go now."

This time Brooke made no effort to detain him, silently agreeing with him. She watched his retreating back and was reminded of a couple other significant times she had watched him walk out of her life. When he shut the door quietly behind him Brooke sank down on the red sofa and buried her head in her hands, promising herself she would sort through this mess in a few minutes.

TBC????

A/N 2: So do you think this is worth continuing? I hope so because I have a few ideas already started. However I would love to hear your thoughts on this…good or bad! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. It means a lot to me. :)