Disclaimer: I don't own OTH and all that you're used to read around; nor do I own the lyrics for the song used on this fic and on its title.
A/N: I know the title is as cliché as it could be but I just found this song today Pictures of You, by The Last Goodnight while watching The Hills and when I checked the lyrics it just fit this one shot perfectly. So why not use it, right? I hope this one shot doesn't suck and I hope you all enjoy it. :P Oh, and keep your BL up and don't give up, k? ;) Now with the story we go. Oh, also, this is like a missing scene between 517 and 518. ;)
Pictures of you, pictures of me
Remind us all of what we used to be
It was a chilly day outside, crazy weather was acting crazy again, the day before was just a nice warm day, like the ones that were to come when summer got there but today it didn't really feel like that. It did feel warmer inside the house though. Maybe it was the feeling of being complete for once or maybe it was just the air conditioner helping matters. Whatever it was Brooke didn't really feel like complaining, she had everything she once wanted, even if it was for more 12 days.
The baby was sitting on her highchair not really paying much attention to what Brooke was doing: making funny noises to try and have the little girl interact with her while she was fed.
"You know, one day you're gonna have to coo at me when I talk to you, baby girl." Brooke said giving her a spoon full of baby food. She heard the front door open and then close and before she could check who it was she just filled the spoon with more baby food and fed Angie again. "Peyton, good thing you're home, I need…" she said cleaning the baby's mouth and looking up to see Lucas smiling at the sight in front of him.
"I might be tall and blonde but last time I checked I was still me." Lucas said looking at his own body.
Brooke chuckled, "Don't forget skinny." She turned her attention back to Angie "You know who's here? Your skinny Uncle Lucas!" Brooke said and Angie looked around to try and figure out what's going on. When she spotted Lucas she started squealing on her highchair.
"Oh, right, now you're happy." Brooke said in fake annoyance still feeding Angie.
"So, I take Peyton's not home." Lucas said approaching them and looking around to figure out Brooke's answer before she actually answered him.
Brooke looked at him and shook her head "No, she's at the studio." Then she went back to Angie, cleaning her mouth with the spoon. "I think you're safe for more 6 hours." Brooke smiled looking up at him.
Lucas nodded and Brooke stood up with an empty bowl in hand. "Awh, ain't I proud of my baby girl? You ate all your baby yucki-looking food!" Brooke said in a baby voice and grabbed a small baby bottle with orange juice from the counter and handed it to Angie. The little girl held it with both hands and started sucking on it.
Brooke took the moment to clean the dishes from Angie's lunch while the girl sat quiet. Lucas pulled a chair and sat next to her; he caressed her small head and Angie kept on looking up to try and see what Lucas was doing with his hand over her head. Lucas chuckled at the baby and turned his attention back to Brooke. "So, how's Angie recovering?"
"She's getting through each day." Brooke smiled from the kitchen sink. "And how are you doing? I heard what happened between you and Lindsey. I'm sorry." Brooke smiled apologetically.
"I'm getting through each day." Lucas answered nodding. What she didn't know, or anyone knew for that matter, was that he'd get drunk every night to get through every day.
Lucas noticed the baby bottle was already empty and took it from Angie to hand it to Brooke by the sink. He went back next to Angie and was about to pick the baby up from the highchair when Brooke looked. "Be careful when you lift her and hold her, Luke. Her chest's still a bit sore and she gets all fussy and whiny when she's held. But then again it might be just me."
He nodded and lifted the baby carefully. "Lemme tell you something, Angie, you have one overprotecting Brooke taking care of you." He said and kissed the baby's head when she tried to grab his nose.
He walked to the living room and took a seat on the couch with Angie on his lap while Brooke finished cleaning the kitchen. It was weird to watch Brooke do house duties when he could remember that back in high school she didn't even know what a mop was.
"I talked to my mom yesterday." Lucas said and Angie kept on looking at him paying attention on what he was saying.
"Yeah? How are she and Lily?" Brooke asked.
"They're good." Lucas nodded and then smiled. By now Angie had given up on pay attention to their talk and was focused on Lucas' hand. She was chewing his hand, next to his thumb and drooling all over it too. "I told her about you and Angie. She said she's proud of you and what you're doing. She always knew you'd grow up to do good things."
Brooke blushed a little. Even if she didn't have her mother's support, knowing Karen thought that great about her and what she was doing, even if she was in the other side of the world, meant a lot to her.
"She said she wants a picture of you and Angie." Lucas added a bit proud, looking down to see what Angie was doing. Brooke followed his gaze and chuckled.
"I'll email her some pictures of us." Brooke then shook her head watching Angie chewing Lucas' hand. "She's drooling all over you, Luke. I'm gonna go and get her teether and a bib." Brooke said and left the kitchen to her bedroom.
"Hey, Angie, where's Brooke?" Lucas asked. The girl stopped drooling on his hand and looked around. She looked back at him. "Where's Brooke, baby girl?" he asked again and when she couldn't find Brooke she let out a loud yelp.
Lucas looked at Angie a bit surprised with her reaction as he heard Brooke rushing in back in the room. "Whoa, what's wrong, baby girl?" Brooke sat on the couch next to Lucas and rubbed Angie's back.
"She just got frustrated she couldn't find you. I asked her where you were and when she couldn't find you…" Lucas said looking down at Angie.
"Awh, you missed me." Brooke said kissing her cheek and getting a small giggle from the baby. She her digital camera on the coffee table in front of them and handed Angie her teether. The baby grabbed it and in a matter of seconds she was chewing on it while Brooke put her bib on. When Angie was all settled she rested her back on the couch and watched as Angie rested her own back on Lucas' chest and kept on chewing on her toy.
"The doctor said I can't really let her cry too hard like she used to on the first days, it might force her chest and the healing would take longer than usual." Brooke said quietly.
Lucas looked at Angie and then Brooke and asked with concern. "She's ok so far, isn't she?"
Brooke nodded, "Yeah, but…"
Lucas cut her off. "No buts then, stop worrying so much, Brooke."
"You're right." Brooke nodded and smiled back at him. She grabbed one of Angie's hands and held it. After a few minutes of a comfortable silence Brooke spoke again. "Do you think they would notice if I ran away to… Chile with her?" Brooke asked serious.
"I would." Lucas replied without even noticing his honesty. He shifted on the couch and put Angie sitting between them and then placed an arm on the couch's back. "Look, Brooke. When it's time for you to have one of these you will. Wheter you're adopting or having it the conventional way." Lucas smiled again and Brooke nodded. It's not like she didn't know that.
Brooke looked back to the little girl who got bored chewing on her teether and was chewing her own hand. Brooke picked her up and placed her on her own lap, kissing her head. "Hmmm, this little hand of yours must taste really yummy, huh?!" She said poking Angie's belly and placing her butterfly kisses on them. The baby giggled again at Brooke, still chewing on her hand. Brooke noticed a bright light flashing on them and looked up to see Lucas taking a picture of herself and Angie.
"You should've at least let me know you were gonna take a picture of us. This is not my best angle, Luke." Brooke said hitting him lightly on the shoulder.
Lucas was looking at the camera to see how the picture had turned out. "Yeah, but if I did it wouldn't have been this natural and pretty." He said showing the picture to Brooke.
"Ok, the picture does look cute but you should take a proper picture of us so I can send it to your mom." Brooke said.
"Alright, hold Angie closer to you then." Lucas asked Brooke and she did as he said, putting a big smile on her face.
Lucas snapped the picture and then took a look at it and smiled. "It looks great, Brooke." He said showing her the picture.
"It does. Look, Angie. Look how pretty we look." Brooke said but the girl was starting to get all fussy on her lap.
"Your turn, Lucas. She's getting all fussy with me. I think she's getting sleepy. Are you getting, sleepy, baby girl?" Brooke asked turning her attention from Lucas to the baby she just handed him.
Lucas made a goofy face and Angie looked at him not getting it. Brooke took the moment to snap a picture. "You look too funny in there, Luke." She said giggling and looking at the picture on her digital camera. "Now stop being goofy and smile. You too, baby." Brooke said and Lucas held Angie closer to him. After she snapped it Lucas spoke. "Now we need a picture of the three of us. It's only fair." He smiled to Brooke and then Angie, "Isn't it?"
"Ok, but where do I put the camera?" Brooke looked around trying to find a place to place the camera and found nothing. She then got one of Angie's toys box and put it on the coffle table and placed the camera on it. She looked through it and fixed it so it was aimed to Lucas and Angie by the couch. She set the timer and walked back to them; Lucas handed Angie to her and she put on a big smile. "Smile!"
After a few seconds and both Brooke and Lucas hoping Angie wouldn't look away the bright flash went off and the picture was taken. Angie started whining and Brooke handed her back to Lucas. "She's getting whiny. You're sleepy, aren't you, baby?" Brooke asked in a baby voice and stood up to take the box away from the coffee table.
"I'm gonna go get her pacifier." She said while putting the box away. She looked at Lucas cooing at the baby lying in his arms and took another picture of them – this time the flash didn't go off -, and then left to her room.
Angie started whining and when Lucas rocked her a little while still on the couch she took her thumb to her mouth and started sucking on it. "Angie, Brooke will be back with your pacifier in a second, there's no need to use your thumb." He said taking the thumb away from her mouth just to get another small whine from the baby. He stood up and paced around for a bit and the girl calmed down on his arms, just like she had done a couple of nights ago, when Brooke came to his house for help.
Brooke came back and stood in the hallway taking in the moment. Lucas was juggling Angie to sleep and the little girl didn't seem to mind she didn't even have her pacifier on. She was quiet in Lucas' arm and from what she could tell, she was almost sleeping too.
Brooke walked back into the room and Lucas looked up to her. "She's almost asleep." He said in a low voice.
Brooke smiled and walked to them, placing Angie's pacifier in her mouth, carefully not to stir the almost light sleeping baby. "You're too good with her, Luke. You're gonna be an awesome dad one day." Brooke smiled at him not really making eye contact and she caressed Angie's head. When the baby didn't stir or made any sign that she was still in a light sleep Brooke continued, softly. "C'mon, let's put her in her crib." She said leading the way to her bedroom where Angie's crib was set.
Pictures of you, pictures of me
Remind us all of what we could have been
Two days later Angie's baby seat was on the counter while Brooke stood in front of it and looked through a box full of pictures. Some of them were taken just weeks ago at Jamie's birthday party and some were from a bit older, from her time in NY and even high school: her and Peyton, her and Haley, everyone at the prom that wasn't really theirs, Naley's wedding and even some of her and Lucas. Brooke smiled looking at the pictures and grabbed one of herself, Haley and Mouth in the swings, next to Karen's cafe.
"Do you see this picture? I once was a cheerleader, along with Aunt Haley. Can you believe she once was a cheerleader too? Are you also gonna be a cheerleader once, Angie? And look at uncle Mouth! He was all dressed up for uncle Lucas and uncle Nathan's game." The girl cooed at Brooke while she talked to her and Brooke put the picture aside. She then got a picture of Nathan and Haley and put it aside too.
She then found a picture of Lily Lucas had given her a week ago. Karen sent him some pictures and asked him to give a copy of it to Haley and Brooke. And he did so. "You see this pretty little girl here? She's Uncle Lucas' sister. She's traveling around the world with her mommy right now but if she was here I'm sure she'd have loved to meet you." Brooke also put the picture away along with one of Jamie on his racing suit. She then found a picture of herself, Peyton and Haley taken back at school.
She chuckled at Peyton's face and then showed it to Angie. "Isn't your Aunt Peyton silly?" The little girl kicked her feet a little and Brooke laughed. She saw a picture of herself and Lucas standing near Karen's café, back when they first started dating and smiled. She wished she could put that picture up with the other ones she chose, she just wasn't sure why.
She then closed the box of pictures and turned to Angie. "Stay right here." Brooke said and run to the living room and got her phone and some new pictures that were just printed yesterday. She called the number she was too familiar with and stood next Angie making funny faces at the baby.
"Hello." Lucas sleepy voice came on the phone.
Brooke frowned and looked at the clock in her wall; it read 11:36am. "Lucas, you're still in bed?"
"Hi, Brooke." He said not that awake or thrilled that he had been just woken up but trying hard to sound nice. "What time is it?" He asked in a low voice.
"Uh, around 11:30. Are you ok?" She asked.
"Yeah. What's up?" No, I have a really bad hung over, he wanted to say.
"So, I was gonna call you yesterday but it was too late already… but now I think it's too soon, right sleepy head." She chuckled and it made Lucas actually smile in the other end. He could hear Angie making baby noises from the other end and he smiled even wider. "I got the pictures we took with Angie the other day, they're too cute. I already emailed some to your mom and… I was thinking of stopping by in a couple of hours to give you the pictures I got for you." Brooke said placing the pictures on a picture board next to the calendar she had already up for quite some days now counting down the days till Angie was gone.
"Actually," Lucas said in a more awake voice now "Why don't you stop by in an hour and we go somewhere to grab some lunch?" He asked not sure how it sounded and how Brooke would take it.
"Hmmm, I'll have to check if it's ok with Angie." Brooke then turned her attention to Angie and caressed her belly. "So, what do you think of going out and have lunch with Uncle Lucas today?" Angie kicked her small legs and Brooke laughed. "Well, she squealed a bit so I think that means yes. I think she has a crush on you and thought this was gonna be a date or something. Should I warn her she'll go up against Peyton and Lindsey?" Brooke asked in a playing tone.
"Oh well, I'd pick her anyway so I think she'd be good." He said laughing back.
"Alright, we'll see you in an hour. Bye." Brooke pressed the red button and finished setting the pictures up on her picture board, adding a picture of herself with Angie and another one with Lucas and Angie in there. When she was done she hang it on her fridge and smiled at it. She then turned at Angie. "Well, at least it looks a bit more cheery there, right?"