Disclaimer- I don't own One Tree Hill or Anyone but You, a book by Jennifer Crusie which this fic is going to be loosely based on.
Summary- Brooke Davis, 35 and recently divorced with a fifteen-year-old daughter, Dylan, decides the thing she and Dylan need is a puppy. What she gets is Fred, the oldest laziest dog in the pound.
Lucas Scott, 37 is an ER doctor whose family wants him to pick a specialty in order to make more money. All Lucas wants is to stay in the ER where he thinks he belongs, play basketball with his brother Nathan, write from time to time and oh yeah… he wants to get his upstairs neighbor Brooke Davis into bed. But she only sees him as a kid, even if he is two years older than her.
The last thing Brooke Davis needed was Fred.
"I want a puppy." Is what Dylan had always said when she was younger. But Andrew had always said no, because he didn't like dogs.
So after a horrible hellish year of divorce proceedings Brooke decided what she and her daughter needed was a nice perky little dog to get their spirits up. So she walked up to the brown-uniformed women behind the scarred metal counter at the SPCA, and said, "I want a puppy. Something perky."
"Perky." The woman sighed, "Right this way… we got perky."
And 'perky' they had. A bunch of jumpy happy puppies is what the woman led Brooke to. Brown, black, white, gold, they had them all. Brooke was torn between at least three and that's when she did it. She glanced into the cage next to the barking perky puppies and saw him.
There was only one dog in that cage, and it was a midsize and depressed, too big for her apartment, and too melancholy for her state of mind. Brooke tried to turn back to the puppies, but somehow, she couldn't. The dog had huge bags under his dark eyes, and hunched shoulders, and a brown coat blotched with white. He sat on the damp concrete like a bunched up vulture, not barking or moving just staring at her. He looked like her great uncle Fred. She'd liked her great uncle Fred, and then one day his heart had gone as her mother put it and that had been that.
"Hello." She said, and the dog lifted his head a little so she stooped down and reached through the cage door to scratch his ears. He looked at her then closed his eyes in appreciation for the scratch.
"What's wrong with him?" Brooke asked the attendant.
"Nothing," the woman said, "He's part basset, part beagle," she checked the card on his cage, "Or he might be psychic. This is his last day."
Brooke's eyes went wide, "You mean…" The attendant nodded. Brooke looked down at the dog, and the dog looked back at her, death in his eyes.
Oh God.
Brooke did not need this dog. Neither did Dylan. They needed a perky happy puppy to cheer them up. They couldn't cater to a depressed dog. Any dog but this one.
"I'll take him." A voice she sorta recognized said. Then she realized it was her own. Great.
"That's your idea of perky?"
Lucas Scott was stretched out on a bed in an empty examination room in the Riverbed General ER, trying to forget his family, and get some sleep before another emergency broke out, when his younger brother came in and dropped a six pack in a brown paper bag on his chest.
"Hey!" Lucas exclaimed, curling to absorb the blow and then saw it was Nathan, and stretched back out again. Pain in conjunction with his family was normal, "Go away, I'm sleeping. And take the damn beer with you before someone sees you."
Nathan pulled a beer out of the sack and opened it while leaving the other five on Luke's stomach, as he collapsed onto the plastic orange chair. Lucas groaned and closed his eyes hoping Nathan would take it as a hint to leave.
He didn't.
"You know if you didn't spend your nights chasing women, you wouldn't get this tired during your shift."
Lucas contemplated not answering, maybe Nathan would think he's asleep, but he answered in spite of himself, "I did not spend my night chasing a girl. I took Lindsay to dinner. She started talking about marriage. I took her home. The end."
"It's because you've got that blond good guy look," Nathan told him, "You've got nice guy written all over you. Now me I look like a rat."
Lucas kept his eyes shut as a hint. "Yes you do. Go away Rat."
"Of course it's too late to pretend you're a rat around here since everyone already knows you." Nathan added in thought.
Lucas thought about snarling at him to go away, before deciding against it. He liked Nathan, and given his family, a relative he was happy to see, other than his mother was a rarity. "So Rat what's the deal with Haley?"
"What?" Nathan asked taken aback.
Lucas gestured to the beer balanced on his stomach, "What has my ex-sister in law slash best friend done now? Something about Jamie?"
"Haley has done nothing. I haven't heard from her in like a week, and Jamie's fine. He's seventeen years old, he's all raised and everything."
So Haleyhasn't called. Leave it to his brother to decide to get wasted when his ex-wife didn't call. Of course leave it to his brother to still be in love with his ex.
"I ran into dad." Nathan said changing the subject, Lucas groaned, "And my mom, your mom and Uncle Keith."
"What do they want?"
"What do you think they want?" Nathan asked, "They all want you to pick something. Dad thinks you'd make a good oncologist. My mom says you'd be good as one of those drug and alcohol doctors, and of course your mom and Keith want you out of harms way, so something easy and not catching like whatever a skin doctor is called."
"Dermatologist." Lucas sighed.
Nathan waved his hand as if to say, whatever, "They all want to have drinks tomorrow."
"Tomorrow is my birthday. Don't you think I should be able to choose what I want to do?" Nathan shook his head.
"See you at nine? After everyone else gets a turn?"
Lucas nodded, "Bring the beer."
"Always."
"Lucas." A nurse poked her head in the room, "We need you."
"I hate you." Luke added to Nathan, "I could have had fifteen minutes of sleep if it wasn't for you."
"Dylan?" Brooke called poking her head in the apartment.
"What did I do now?" her daughter called back from her room.
Brooke rolled her eyes and led Fred into the apartment and placed him on the couch, "Dyl, come out here for a minute." Dylan called back an okay but Brooke was still alone in the living room five minutes later, "Dilly, don't dally." She called with a smirk.
"Hilarious Brooke, really funny." Dylan said walking out of her room, "I've never heard that one before.
"Stop calling me Brooke." She said sternly.
"What isthat?" Dylan asked staring at Fred.
"That is Fred. Our dog."
"You got a dog?" Someone yelled from the kitchen.
"Aunt Peyton's here." Dylan said still staring uneasily at the dog, "Don't worry Peyton it's not a dog. I think it's just a lump they told her was a dog. Is it even breathing?"
"Yes!" Brooke said annoyed, she reached out to pet Fred, who immediately leaped into her lap kissing her face.
"What isthat?" Peyton asked entering the room with a glass of something from Brooke.
Brooke took a sip and choked on the amaretto, "Oh jeez Peyt. What did Jake do now?"
"He told me I wasn't Jenny's mother."
Brooke put her head in her hands. She loved Jake really she did, but he could be so stupid sometimes.
"You're not though. Jen's mom is some crack addict." Dylan said sitting next to the dog, "Oh Brooke this thing smells."
"He just needs a bath," Brooke said, "And you're not being helpful."
"I'm the only mother she's known in the last seventeen years." Peyton said.
"I know honey." Brooke nodded putting her glass down.
Dylan glanced at the dog tag around it's neck, "I can't believe you named it Fred."
Peyton scrunched up her face, "Oh my God, he does look like your Uncle Fred."
"I know right?" Brooke said standing up to look at him. Fred stared at both of them then moaned pitifully falling into Dylan's lap, "So why did Jake tell you you're not Jenny's mother, who by the way is not a crack addict but still not a very nice lady."
"Some stupid argument." Peyton said sinking into a chair while Brooke grabbed the Oreos, "It's just we've been together since high school. Nikki is long gone and Jenny's 18. Why does Jake have such a problem with me being her mother? He had no problems when she turned thirteen and got her first period. Or when she went on the pill. In fact he was grateful I was there. I really don't know what to do Brooke. I love him and I love her, but after seventeen years Jake is still treating this like a temporary high school romance. Shouldn't we be married right now? Like you and Andrew were?"
"Not a good example." Brooke winced.
"Still. He married you when you guys had Dilly."
"Oh yeah Andrew called." Dylan said from her spot on the floor trying to coax Fred to fetch a ball she threw.
"Dad. Dad called." Brooke said, rolling her eyes, "He is your father and I am your mother."
"He wants you to call him back." Dylan went on as if Brooke hadn't said a word.
"Yeah, I'll bet he does." Brooke sighed, "Come on Fred. We're gonna learn how to go down the fire escape."
"In case of emergency?" Dylan asked.
"No, so I don't have to rush home every couple hours to take him out." Brooke propped a box up next to the window, "The yard is fenced in. He can let himself in and out. Come on Puppy."
"He's not a puppy." Peyton said.
"Let her have her delusions Aunt Peyton. She still thinks it's a dog."
"Cut the smart ass routine Dylan." Brooke said loosing her patience.
"Yes ma'm." Dylan sighed.
"Come on, Peyt." Brooke said gesturing out the fire escape, "Have you mentioned marriage to him?"
"Well no I mean, I never really thought of myself as one of those women whowanted marriage, but I'm sitting there and we're arguing and all I can think is, I'm not his wife. He can walk out of here and not come back ever, cause I'm just his girlfriend. His high school sweetheart. I'm thirty-five years old Brooke. I want the whole package, ya know? A white wedding-"
"Off-white." Brooke interrupted with a small smile.
"With you, Jen, and Dilly as my bridesmaids, Jake up at the alter in a black suit, and I want to throw the bouquet instead of being the one catching it."
"Then you have to tell Jake that in no uncertain terms P. Sawyer." Peyton nodded.
Lucas collapsed on his couch turning on the tv. There was nothing on. There never was, but he had hoped. It was almost ten o'clock, and he glanced to his right and reached out to pet the basset hound sitting next to him-
"What the hell?" he asked jerking his hand away, "I don't have a dog." He added to no one. The dog turned to stare at his open window. Lucas rolled his eyes, "Of course."
Catching sight of his tags Lucas pulled the dog closer, "Let's see, Fred Davis. Oh your one floor up buddy. Come on I'll get you back to your owners."
"Where the hell is he?" Brooke asked no one, cause Dylan had lost interest, easy come easy go, is what she had said before turning on the tv.
"Fred!" Brooke called, then added to Dylan, "You're an ungrateful child."
"I didn't ask for a dog, Brooke."
"Mom! My name is mom." She said angrily with her head out the window searching for her dog, when she heard a knock on the door.
She pulled it open and found herself face to face with a tall blond guy, "Can I help you?"
"Are you Fred's mom?" he asked moving to reveal her basset beagle mix.
Okay well there's chapter one. I hope you guys like it. Let me know by reviewing.
-Em