From Now On – chapter one
"Just telling you now" she said sitting on the bench sipping her coffee "I'm not picking up the pieces when this fails, and it will"
"yee of little faith" he said with a wink and a smile "Okay boys, you ready for this, for it is going to be glorious" Julian said pulling up his socks and instructing the boys to also, "Okay Davis, Jude come back" he said pulling them to the edge of the room "OK GO DAVIS GO" Julian said as Davis ran "SLIDE, SLIDE, SLIDE,SLIDE YEAH" Julian and Jude shouted as Davis made it to the other side of the room at the front door. "Okay Jude, are you ready?"
"Sure am dad" Even though Brooke had to literally hold her breath when they took off, she had to hide her laughing at the looks on her kids (including Julian's) faces and the joy that they all shared when they got to the other side of the room without fatalities. She had said no but Julian had told her to "Stop stressing, It's fun mum" and she had said " Well have your fun but I will hold you personally responsible if anything breaks" she knew that if she said no that it would be like forbidden fruit and she would find them doing it in the middle of the night. "JUDE GO" Davis shouted in excitement from his position on the stairs "SLIDE"
Brooke watched as the twins shouted "YEAH" and high fived. Now obviously it was her biggest kids turn and from the look on his face he was the most excited out of all three of the boys "COME ON DADDY"
"YOU CAN DO IT DADDY" they encouraged as Brooke stifled her laughter. Julian backed up and started running "Slide" they yelled as Julian gave them the thumbs up and let out a "WHOOP" of joy. As he slid, he knew he was going to hit the door but hey that didn't matter, Julian was preparing for his door landing when the door opened with Haley looking at him coming towards her. He abruptly stopped, tumbled and stabilised breathing a sigh of relief before stumbling and landing between her feet. Brooke was now standing and the boys were looking on gobsmacked.
"Hi" he said cautiously pulling himself off the ground and breaking the ice before everyone started hysterically laughing.
"What was that?" Haley asked with a confused smile on her face
"We call that cheap entertainment here at the Davis-Baker household" Brooke said with a laugh as she finished her coffee so that she could catch a ride with Haley to work. She placed the empty cup in the sink and picked up her handbag from the end of the bench before walking over to her boys
"Come give mama a kiss please" she said crouching down to their height as they approached "Okay have fun at Granny Sylvia's and give her a big kiss from mum" Brooke said hugging and kissing each twin a couple of times, she had barely spent any time away from her boys and now Julian was taking them away from her for a week so that she could still work while he went to produce a movie close to where his mother was living, Julian had called it a time for Brooke to relax and unwind but it just stressed Brooke out really. Ever since she had had the boys three years ago chaos was normal and the quiet was unsettling so while Julian thought he was doing her a world of good she was secretly regretting ever accepting the idea. When she had finished with the boys she walked over to her husband who wrapped his arm around her torso, dragging her into an embrace "You take care of my boys! And good luck babe" she said before they kissed and she headed out the door with Haley waving. They hopped in Haley's min van and began to drive to the café, as she turned on the car nursery rhymes blared over the speakers and Brooke had to pull a barbie out from behind herself and Haley looked on entertained, usually she would be mortified if anyone could see the mess that was her car but Brooke was in the exact same boat as she was, small children and no time to herself, plus she was one of her best friends so Haley knew that Brooke knew that this was not a regularly accepted standard for her car.
"So a week without your boys how is that going to be for you?" Haley asked turning the corner and then paying half attention to Brooke
"I can't even talk about it, I cried in the bathroom last night just thinking about it." She said as Haley gave her the sympathetic mum look knowing full well that Brooke would survive the week and when the week was over demand more alone time "Guess what" Brooke said full of enthusiasm changing the subject as Haley shrugged her shoulders singing along to twinkle twinkle little star "Rachel Gattina called me last night" Brooke said before Haley swerved the car
"Whoa, really?" she said looking over to Brooke who was holding on to the car door rather tightly
"Yes speed racer; she is coming to Tree Hill for a couple of days and was wondering if she could stay with me."
"Sounds great" said Haley, her tone full of sarcasm
"Look on the bright side, I won't have to spend my week alone" Brooke said smiling at the shady lady to her left
"Bright, bright, bright" Haley said with a fake smile
X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Brooke walked through her front door and out of instinct yelled "Mama's home" when she got no response she remembered that the house was completely silent because her boys weren't home. She walked to the fridge and even though it was only just on lunch time she pulled out the bottle of red wine, in the hope that a glass of red would somehow fill the silence, she had driven home in her lunch break so that she could greet Rachel when she arrived and Brooke just wished that she would arrive quicker. When the doorbell finally rang Brooke practically ran to it and swung the door open as quick as she could to the red head looking back at her, drawing her in for a hug before either of them could say anything to the shock of Rachel.
"Whoa either you're happy to see me or…" Brooke said as she looked down "Or you are FRICKEN PREGNANT" she said taking a step back and putting a hand on Rachel's massive stomach, from what Brooke assumed Rachel was very heavily pregnant and very close to her due date. Her long red hair was tied up into a pony tail and she wore a very relaxed dress that clung to her bulging abdomen in the heat, her face was fuller and her eyes nearly matched her hair colour which Brooke anticipated was from a heavy downpour of tears.
"And you are obviously as smart as you were in high school" the feisty red head responded in true Brooke and Rachel style which made Brooke laugh, as Rachel stepped inside Brooke went to hug her again but was interrupted by another set of tears "I thought I could do this on my own but I can't, I just can't" Rachel sobbed before moving over to Brooke and collapsing in a pile of tears on Brooke's shoulder.
Brooke paced up and down the hallway wondering how she had managed to get herself into this situation, she had never ever expected that this was going to be the result of Rachel coming to Tree Hill, in actually fact she had hoped that she and Rachel would have a lovely week of heavy drinking considering she had no small children or heavy machinery to take care of but well that surely wasn't something that Rachel could do in her current condition, Rachel was currently having a nap in the spare bedroom upstairs.
"My milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard, there like it's better than yours, damn right it's better than yours, I can teach you but I have to charge…..did Brooke Baker just snort?" her phone sang as it sat on the bench and for a brief moment before she darted for the phone she remembered the day that she had taped Julian singing it after she had caught him singing it to the boys and how her laughing had woken up Jude because their laughter was so loud. As quick as she could she opened it to silence it and spoke into the receiver "It's Brooke"
"Hey Cheery it's me" Haley said while clearly chewing something standing in the café, Brooke could tell by the noise of the opening door "Has Pamela Anderson shown up yet?" she asked briefly laughing at her own joke; it was no secret that Rachel and Haley weren't the closest of friends.
"She is pregnant" Brooke whispered into the receiver
"Is it yours?" Haley said before yet again laughing at her own joke
"Haley she is actually pregnant" Brooke said a little bit harsher into the receiver but she couldn't not smile at Haley she found it funnier because it was the same humour that High school Haley had.
"Holy smokes" Haley responded "Are you sure?"
"Her massive stomach is sort of pointing to the pregnant side" Brooke said looking over her shoulder to make sure that Rachel wasn't walking up the hallway
"Maybe she just had a big burger for lunch" Haley said as she sort of didn't believe what Brooke was telling her, the silence was enough of an answer "Who is the father?"
"I don't know who the father is, She came in, burst into tears and then I put her to bed" she said before another moment of a stunned Haley's questioning, Brooke turned herself around on the bench and saw Rachel walking up the hallway "Hey Hales I've got to go, I'll be back at Karen's in an hour" she said before hanging up the phone and smiling at Rachel as she waddled up to where Brooke was sitting.
"Wasn't Haley pregnant last time I was here?" she asked referring to the high school reunion, which had been the last time since Rachel had been in Tree Hill.
"Yeah she had twins about a year ago, Sam and Izzy" Brooke said not taking her eyes off Rachel but also not letting Rachel see the concern in her eyes
"And what is with all the baby stuff in the spare room?" Rachel asked hoisting herself up onto one of the bench stools
"Peyton and Lucas just had another baby" she said turning so that she was facing her
"It's like animal planet in Tree Hill these days, so much mating"
"And you've joined the madness" Brooke said before placing her hands onto Rachel's stomach for the second time in an hour "Want to tell me about it?" she asked
"Not particularly" she responded trying to avoid Brooke's gaze but failing and falling into the trap "Fine! It's a boy and its due in two weeks" she said as Brooke thought to herself 'Whoa she is really pregnant. I wonder how many times she had to stop and go to the toilet on the trip here'
"How did it happen?" was Brooke's real question as Rachel looked at her with a 'you've got to be kidding me' look "I don't mean the sex part, I know how babies are made"
"I had a one night stand, got pregnant, thought to myself that this could be my only chance and then decided to keep it"
"Does the Father know?"
"That I'm pregnant?"
"No, that there is a high possibility of that baby coming out with Red hair" she cursed herself, somehow she had caught Haley's jokes
"He isn't the kid type" she said looking down at her stomach as Brooke's churned instantly regretting the joke she had just made.
Brooke soon after left to go back to work, telling Rachel to come in and visit her at the café later that afternoon and telling her that she could knock off work early if she came in and they could go shopping. But before Rachel went to the café she had decided that she wanted to re-familiarise herself with Tree Hill. She went to grab her bag to leave but hesitated, grabbing out her mobile she dialled the number and waited for the message bank which she always got, "This is Owen, you know the drill leave a message at the beep"
"Hi Owen its Rachel! I know that you said that you didn't want to know but I'm in Tree Hill with Brooke, you might be wondering why I am calling to let you know, well even though you don't want him I'm having this baby" she took a deep breath "Your baby! And you deserve to know where he is" Rachel said before hanging up the phone and heading out the door.
To be continued