Can I ask you a question please?

Promise you won't laugh at me
Honestly, I'm standing here
Afraid I'll be betrayed
As twisted as it seems
I only feel love when it's in my dreams
So let in the morning light and let the darkness fade away

Can you turn my black roses red,
Can you turn my black roses red

California

Brooke Davis looked out of the window in front of her, tears streaming down her face like the rain that streaked the windowpane. Wiping away another tear, she looked down at the text message Lucas had sent her.

I love you and I will wait for you. Please come home to me.

With sobs wracking her body, Brooke curled up into a ball on the window seat, mascara running onto the flowered fabric as she clutched the phone to her chest. Her eyes closed against all the memories that she and Lucas had shared, including their first date. She loved him with her whole heart, but he had betrayed her. He had cheated on her with her best friend.

But he said that he loved her and that the Peyton box was just a reminder of what he had done to her. Shaking her head, Brooke forced all the thoughts out of her head and climbed off the window seat, hoping to head to bed. But her phone rang to life in her hand and she looked down to find yet another text message from Lucas.

I love you and I want to prove to you that I've changed. Please give me the chance and I promise, I'll never break your heart again.

"Stop this, Lucas," Brooke softly pleaded as she made the message disappear from her screen.

Turning the radio on, Brooke crawled into bed, sighing as yet another love song came on the radio. In no mood for a love song, she kept changing the stations until a song caught her attention. Clutching her pillow, she listened to the verse and refrain.

Drowning in my loneliness / How long must I hold my breath / So much emptiness inside/ I could fill the deepest sea / I reach to the sky as the moon looks on / My one last year has come and gone / I'm dying to let your love rain down on me / Can you turn my black roses red/ Can you turn my black roses red/ Can you turn my black roses red

Sighing yet again, she punched her pillow, trying to get comfortable. How true that was. She thought she knew loneliness all those times her parents had deserted her. She thought loneliness was just a feeling. It wasn't until she had Lucas and had lost him that she realized how much loneliness hurt. She felt like her heart was closed, like it could never love again. Listening to the end of the song, Brooke closed her eyes, hoping to get some sleep.

The minutes ticked by, turning into hours. Brooke still lay awake, simply staring at the ceiling. She had long since turned off the radio, but the refrain from the song, "Can you turn my black roses red?" still played in her head. Could Lucas, the one person who had hurt her the most, be the only person that could undo that damage? Brooke sat up as she pondered the question that had drifted into her mind. Could she trust him again? He had changed so much in the past year, but could he really change what he had done to her?

Brooke got up from her bed and started packing. There was only one way to find out and that was to give Lucas another chance. After her bags were packed, she left a note for her parents and headed to the airport to catch a flight to Tree Hill. To where the key to her heart lay.

Tree Hill

Lucas paced around his empty house. With his mother in New Zealand and everybody else gone, he simply had nothing to do. Peyton had taken off after Jake and though he had seriously considered going after Brooke, he knew he had to give her time.

Hearing a shuffle from outside the bedroom door, Lucas walked over and opened the door, shocked to find Brooke standing there before him.

"Brooke?" he stumbled over her name.

"I had to see. You're the one that broke my heart. Maybe you're the one who can fix it," Brooke threw her arms around Lucas' neck and kissed him with everything she had.

"I'm going to make this up to you, you know?" Lucas quietly whispered. "I will never hurt you again."

"I want to trust you, Luke. Really I do," Brooke softly protested.

"Baby, I'd rather die than hurt you the way I did," Lucas softly stated.

"Prove it," Brooke said simply before kissing him.

Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days into weeks. Before Brooke realized it, she and Lucas had made it through their senior year and graduation. Standing beside Lucas for graduation photos, Brooke was surprised to hear the song from last summer playing over the loudspeakers.

"Listen," Brooke tugged on Lucas' hand.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"The song," Brooke softly sang under her breath, her head cocked as she watched him. His blue eyes registered the meaning behind the word and held questions as he looked down at her. "That's what brought me back to you. That's what made me realize that you were the only one for me, the only one that could fix me."

"Well did I?" Lucas asked.

"Did you what?" Brooke replied.

"Turn your black roses red?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, you did," Brooke smiled softly before leaning up to kiss Lucas.

Life has a funny way of working out. It's true when they say that the ones we love the most are the ones that hurt us the most. But Brooke took a chance and it worked. Instead of a closed heart, she now had more love than she knew what to do with. Her black roses were definitely red.