Hey guys, I am back! I know I have a bad habit of not finishing the stories that I have already started, but this came to mind and I wanted to write it. Please tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I don't own tree hill or any of its characters.
Flashbacks are in Italics
Lucas stepped out of the Chevy truck and looked around. He was back. Back to the place that it had all began 10 years ago when he was 16. On the opposite side of the truck, Brooke Scott was also stepping out of the truck. She opened the back door and unbuckled the carrier car seat that held their 2-month-old son, Jason. Lucas came around to the passenger side of the truck taking Jason's carrier from his wife as they walked towards the front door of the house that he had grown up in.
"Ready?" Lucas asked Brooke
Brooke hesitated. It was incredibly weird being back in the place that she had grown up. So many things had changed that she didn't know where to begin trying to remember what it was like when she had left 9 years before. She did remember all the things that had happened the night she left though.
Brooke walked into the house and straight for her bedroom. She wanted to take a nap. She had just worked a twelve-hour shift at the café with Karen. As she walked by the living room she saw Lucas sitting on the couch. The lights were out and the TV was off. He was sitting there in the dark.
"Lucas?" Brooke asked as she walked towards the couch "Lucas, why are you sitting here in the dark?"
"Thinking"
"Thinking about what?"
"Us"
"Us? Why are you thinking about us?" Brooke thought they had decided to just be friends and try to put aside any feelings that were more than that. They had tried that before and it had not worked out.
"I was thinking about where we would be today in our relationship if I hadn't…."
"Cheated on me?" Brooke asked finished his sentence
"Yea" came the simply reply
"Lucas, that is the past. Why are you thinking about it now?"
"Because I regret it everyday of my life. I regret not valuing our relationship more. I regret all of it"
"Lucas…"
"No Brooke, let me finish. I wish I could go back and change it. I wish every day that I could go back and tell myself that it is not worth it. It is not worth losing you because you are one of the best things that has ever happened in my life. You are a special person, someone that I could spend the rest of my life with. Brooke, can we please give it another try?"
Brooke stood there looking into Lucas's pleading eyes. She spoke not a word as she headed towards her bedroom shutting the door behind her.
She remembered living with Karen in the house, this house. She remembered the night that Lucas had laid his heart out to her and she remembered walking out the back door into the night.
"Yea, ready as I will ever be" she finally answered
Lucas knocked on the front door and heard his mom voice inside telling the person at the door that she was coming. When you she opened the door she found her son, daughter-in-law and grandson waiting for her.
It had been a year since she had left. The love of his life walked out in the middle of the night. She hadn't said good bye. Not a single indication that she was leaving. He had been walking around like a zombie since then. He needed to find her. He walked down the hallway passed his mother's room. Karen would be upset that he was gone too, but he would at least leave her a note.
An hour later, Lucas was walking out the back door of his childhood home in search of the love of his life. He had left a note for his mom on the kitchen table. It simply told her that he loved her and that he would miss her. That he was sorry for leaving without a formal goodbye.
"Lucas…" Karen gasped as she rushed out the door and into her son's waiting arms
"Hey mom" Lucas couldn't believe how much he had missed his mom. It had been 8 years since he had seen her.
Lucas released Karen and turned the carrier around so that Karen could gaze upon her grandson.
"Mom, I want you to meet, Jason Keith Scott. Jason, meet your grandma"
"Oh my gosh!" Karen said as she looked at her young grandson. She looked up at Lucas and then at Brooke trying to decide whom Jason most looked like. After looking long and hard at both of them she still couldn't decide.
"Oh, come in. Get that baby out of this weather"
As the three walked into the house, Andy came down the hallway from the kitchen. His eyes showed his look of concern as he looked at the scene before him. His wife stood in the foyer of their home with her son, the son who had left 8 years ago. As Andy continued staring, Lucas looked down the hallway into his eyes. Lucas could see the look of concern on Andy's face. Lucas watched as Andy's eyes diverted from Lucas to Karen, who was now holding her grandson.
Karen followed Lucas's gaze to Andy, " Andy, they are home." She said as a single tear rolled down her cheek
Andy came into the foyer, walked over to Karen and kissed her on the cheek. He then looked upon the young child that she held safely in her arms. The young child looked extremely comfortable in Karen's arms.
"Lucas…" Andy said as he looked up from the child
"Andy, thank you" Lucas said as he shook Andy's hand and pulled him into a hug.
"Your welcome. I am just glad you came home"
"I had to. We both had too," Lucas said as he looked at Brooke.
"Hey Brooke"
"Hey Andy"
"Brooke…" was all Karen could say as she looked at Brooke. This was the daughter that she had always wanted. She was the girl that she had brought into her home and she was also the girl that had left in the middle of the night.
Brooke with tears running down her cheeks looked up at Karen, the woman who was more of a mother to her than her own mom had been. She could see the hurt in Karen's eyes still there from the night she had left, but she could also see the joy of her returning.
"I am so sorry, Karen" Brooke expressed.
"Shh" Was all Karen said as she hugged the young women with her free arm not holding her grandson, "All that matters is that you are home now"
"I wish I had come home earlier and not for something like this" Brooke stated.
"Me too. I am sorry this tragedy is what brought you two home again," Karen said
Lucas thought back to yesterday when Andy had called him.
It was a hot day in Pensacola and Lucas was trying to get their lab, Sammy to stop jumping in the pool when he was trying to clean it. Brooke sat on the deck under the umbrella with Jason laughing.
"Sammy, out" Lucas yelled at the lab
Sammy slowly swam to the stairs and exited the pool walking over to the edge again.
"Sammy, I am going to put you in the garage" Lucas warned from the other side of the pool
"Lucas, he is a dog. He doesn't care what you say, he just knows that he is hot"
Lucas looked up at his wife and heard a splash. He looked down to find Sammy swimming happily.
"I give up" Lucas said as he walked around the pool towards the house.
"Let him enjoy himself. He will get tired and then you can clean it" Brooke said as her husband approached her and Jason.
Lucas walked over to his wife and kissed her. They had a good life together. Brooke was an executive vice president for a fashion-designing firm. Lucas was a sports agent.
They were pulled out of their kiss by the sound of a cell phone ringing. Lucas picked up his phone and looked at the caller id. He didn't know the number, but he knew the area code. It was Tree Hill.
Lucas walked into the house as he pushed the send button "Lucas Scott"
"Lucas, It's Andy"
"Andy?"
"I got your number from your firm. I have been trying to track you down"
"You have been trying to find me? Is mom ok?"
"Your mom is fine, but you need to come home."
"Why?"
"Lucas, I need to find Brooke. Do you know where she is?" Nobody had any clue that Lucas had found Brooke and that they were now married
"Yea, she is here with me. What is going on?"
"Lucas, it is Peyton"
"Peyton? What about Peyton?"
"Lucas, she wanted me to find you two. It is her dying wish to see you again"
"Dying wish?"
"She has cancer, Lucas. She isn't going to be with us much longer"
"Cancer?"
"She wants you two to come home."
"We will be home tomorrow. Tell Peyton to hang on we are coming"
"I will"
Lucas hung up the phone without saying goodbye and held the phone to his heart. How was he going to tell his wife about Peyton? He only had a few seconds to decide because Brooke was walking into the house.
Brooke read her husband's expression instantly and knew something was wrong.
"Lucas? Lucas, what is it?"
"Brooke, We have to go back to Tree Hill"
"What?"
"Brooke, we need to go home"
"I don't want to go back there," Brooke said as she turned to walk away
"Brooke, we have to. Peyton wants to see us. It is her last wish"
Brooke stopped in her tracks and turned to him, "Her last wish?"
"She has cancer. She is not going to live much longer"
"How is she?" Brooke asked"Waiting for you two" Karen answered
"I will take you to see her if you are ready," Andy said
"Yes, we need to see her" Lucas answered
"We will all go" Karen said as she placed Jason back in his carrier. She had many questions for Lucas and Brooke, but they would have to wait. They had something more important to do right now.
A/N Please read and review