A/N - I was a bit upset by the amount of reviews I recieved. Not because it was a very small amount or anything, because it really wasn't. But because I lost half the amount of reviews I had recieved in chapter 1. Please, if you read, leave a review.
Thanks: bella, BDavis427, TutorWife, onetreehillgirl066, CheerandBrood323, othfan326, illeandra, princetongirl, and Brucas2006.
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What's True
Chapter 3 -
Brooke subconsciously sat in the car and rubbed her sleeping daughter's back. Everything would have been fine, but then she remembered. There, in front of her, in the front seat of the car was that blonde boy who had broken her heart several times since she'd known him.
She looked down at Rylie, her head on Brooke's lap. She loved Riley oh-so much, but her daughter's big mouth...well, that could cause a problem sometimes.
She glanced back at Lucas through the rear-view mirror and she was reminded of how she exactly got into this position.
"Guess what daddy?"
"What, princess?"
"Tomorrow me and mommy are going on a road trip." The little girl's face lit up with excitement.
"Oh, yeah? Where to?"
"Tree Hill. Mommy says that's where she grew up. Did you live there, too?"
"Yup. And so did Peyton and your Uncle Nate and Aunt Haley."
"Mommy says she likes Tree Hill better than Chapel Hill. But I love Chapel Hill."
"I know you do, babe."
After the whole gang graduated from UNC in Chapel Hill, they all decided to live there as well.
"Riley, come on. Say goodbye to daddy, it's time to go." Brooke called out, entering the house.
"Hey, mommy. I was just telling daddy where we're going tomorrow. Hey, I have an idea, daddy can come with us!" Riley clapped her hands together, and looked up adoringly at her mother.
"I don't know, Ry. Daddy's probably real busy with last-minute wedding plans and things. Maybe next time, though."
"Daddy, please." Riley whined and looked up to her father.
"No, mommy's right. Daddy's too busy."
"But, I wanted you to come." Her bottom lip started to quiver and her eyes started to tear.
Lucas looked over to Brooke, and Brooke sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Okay, then I'll come."
"Really?"
"Of course, anything for you, babe."
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"Mommy?"
"Mhhmmm?" Brooke replied while in the middle of tucking her daughter into bed.
"I'm really happy daddy can come with us tomorrow."
"I know you are." Brooke gave her a kiss on her forehead.
"Tomorrow's gonna be really fun, right?"
"Of course. But I think it's time for you to get some sleep otherwise you'll be way too tired to have fun."
"I think you're right, mommy."
"I know I'm right. Okay, so goodnight, I love you."
"Love you, too."
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"Hey." Lucas whispered, careful not to wake up his sleeping daughter. "I'm gonna stop to get gas, you want anything?"
"No, I'm fine. Thanks."
The car was silent with the exception of their daughter's light snoring until Lucas pulled the keys out of the car's ignition.
"You sure you don't want anything?"
"I'm fine." She replied again.
He nodded and opened the car door to get out.
Brooke watched as he filled the car with gas and she was immediately reminded of when they were teens. When they were dating, it would always be Lucas filling up her car with gas because she'd always complain about the smell of the fuel and how disgusting it was.
"I think we should stop the next time we see a motel or something, it's getting pretty late." He said, getting back into the car.
"Yeah, well, if your fiancé hadn't held up us, we would have left hours earlier and we would have been there by now."
"Brooke, please. Do we really need to do this now?" Lucas sighed, shaking his head slightly. "I don't know what you have against Lindsey, but she's trying to be your friend. And even if you don't like her, she's going to be my wife in less than a month. And I don't care if you accept it or not because it's not about you this time, Brooke."
"Just find a place for us to stay."
He nodded wordlessly and pulled out of the gas station.
It wasn't until six exits on the highway later, Brooke counted, that they were able to find a place to sleep for the night.
Brooke carefully, trying not to wake her up, lifted Rylie into her arms. Unfortunately, she failed, and it wasn't too long before the tiny girl was squirming in her mother's arms.
"Mommy, are we there?"
"Not quite, babe. We're gonna be there tomorrow though, okay?"
Rylie nodded into her mother's neck and yawned. "I'm tired."
"I know you are. You're gonna go to bed in a little bit."
"Where's daddy?"
"He's getting us a room to stay in for the night. He'll be back soon."
Lucas came back five minutes later with a room key in his hand. He went to the trunk of the car and got out all three of their bags.
"I can take my own bag." Brooke walked over to him, Rylie still in her arms.
"No, please, let me."
"I said I can take my bag."
He sighed in defeat and slid her bag off his shoulder, handing it to her. "Happy?"
"Thrilled." She shot back and rolled her eyes.
Her stilettos clicked against the cement as she made her way in front of Lucas.
"You know." She started and turned around to face him. He was a few feet back. "Your daughter is really tired here, so you might want to speed up your pace a little bit." She then turned around again, brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, and then continued walking. She could tell this weekend was going to be possibly the worse weekend ever.
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"I'm tired, mommy."
"I know. Let me just get your pajamas out of your bag and then we'll get you changed, alright?"
"Yeah. But, mommy?"
"Yeah, sweetheart?"
"Do you hate daddy?"
"What? What are you talking?" Brooke stopped rummaging through the heaps of clothing and sat next to her daughter on the bed.
"You're really mean to him. Is it because you hate him?"
"I don't hate your daddy, Rylie."
"Oh. Well, sometimes, it looks like it."
Brooke frowned a bit before nodding. "Come on. Let's get your 'jammies on."
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"It's not like that, Lindsey." Brooke stood outside their door and eavesdropped on Lucas's conversation. He was a few feet away, leaning up against the car. "You know I'm here for Rylie, not Brooke. Rylie's my daughter. She asked me to come, so please, just stop. I know that I left you to go to the caterers by yourself and I left you to go to one of the final meetings with the planner by yourself, and I'm sorry. I really am. But I'm going to make it up to you, okay? I'll be back in two days.Now I gotta go. I love you. Bye."
Lucas mumbled a curse and kicked the bumper of his car. He then grabbed his head in his hands and inhaled and exhaled deeply.
"You okay?"
Lucas looked up in surprise. "How long have you been there, Brooke?"
"Long enough to see you beat up your car." She replied hesitantly, hoping he wouldn't be mad at her for her eavesdropping skills. "Is Lindsey okay?"
"So you heard that whole conversation."
"Well, I didn't mean to, I just...well, I wanted to see where you were and if you were okay..."
"Just say yes, Brooke." He smirked.
"Okay, fine, yes. Um, I think we need to talk."
"Okay, you wanna get back into the room, or..."
"No, lets just stay out here. Rylie just went to sleep and I really don't want to wake her up again."
"Alright. What's up?"
"Our daughter thinks that I hate you."
"Well, don't you? I mean, you've hardly been nice, actually, you've been kinda rude come to think of it."
"And you blame me? Here you are, always ruining my plans to spend time with my daughter. Lindsey needs you one day and you can't see Rylie. So then you think you can just swap days and take her the next time."
"Brooke, this isn't about you. It's about Rylie. Our job as parents is to make her happy."
"You think that's your job? Lucas, please. Your job is to make sure she's safe. Your job is to make sure she knows that you love her even when she makes a mistake. You don't know what it's like Lucas, because your in her life for about three hours every day. What about the rest of the time? You don't know what it's like to have to wake up in the middle of the night to hear her crying because she's had another nightmare. Or to clean up her knee after she's just scraped it. Or even to just tuck her into bed. God, Luke, you're never there. Just the other night I had to rock her to sleep because she was crying. And I cried with her. Do you wanna know why she was crying? Do you, Lucas?"
"Why?"
"Because she hadn't seen you in a whole week."
Lucas looked down at the pavement and his shoes. He was too ashamed. Because Brooke had been right, he was a horrible father when it came to things like that.
"Are you happy, Luke?"
"With what?"
"With your life? Because this, with Rylie, is as good as it's gonna get. You're getting married in a few weeks and then you're going to start a family of your own. And I'm telling you, Lucas, from experience of being neglected by parents, Rylie's going to get older. And she won't forgive that easily any more."
"You had your chance." He mumbled, still not meeting her eyes.
"What?"
"You had your chance...Back in college. When I asked you to marry me."
"Lucas! We were young and I had just found out that you had gotten me knocked up! The first thing you thought of was to propose. Do you realize how stupid that would have been if we did get married? You proposed to me because of Rylie, and I wasn't about to be trapped into some love-less marriage or anything."
"That wasn't the only reason, Brooke."
"Well it's the only reason now that's still existing, so what does it matter?"
"You're right, it doesn't matter."
"So why bring it up? Why even mention it?"
He shook his head before replying. "I don't know."
"Well when you figure it out, you let me know. I'm going to bed."
-----2010-----
"Marry me."
Brooke hiccupped through her tears before she fully processed what two words had come out of Lucas's mouth. "What?"
"Look, we can make this work. We're gonna make this work. Okay? Together."
Brooke looked around the dorm room trying to think of the right words to say. "I'm sorry, I think you should leave."
"Brooke..."
"Lucas, please. I really need time to think over a few things...Please."
She placed a hand on her stomach. What was she going to do?
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A/N - Please, please, please, please leave a review! PLEASE?! (Okay, I'm going to stop begging now lol)
–Melissa :)