A/N- Major thank you's to everyone who reviewed, and sorry that this chapter took a while, but I was about to post it the other day and I decided to make some alterations lol. It's now two word pages longer :) Hope you enjoy, and please review at the end :)
Oh, and I'll take this oppertunity to hassle Lynn for an update! You're killing me!
All I Want for Christmas
Bubble Beards
"Lucas I need you to come home." Haley chokes down the phone. "Nathan is back and he wants to see James and I just…can't this interview wait?"
"No." He replies simply. So it wasn't an interview, but still, being in New York with his daughter couldn't wait.
"What do you mean no? Luke, you're supposed to be my best friend."
"Hales…"
"No, you know what, you're just like Nathan and Dan. You let people d…"
"I lied." Lucas tells her softly, wanting to offer his best friend all the sympathy in the world, but he can't seem to find it, not now.
"Urgh you really are just like Nathan and Dan." Haley snaps. "I thought you were different Luke, I thought…"
"It's Brooke." Lucas cuts in.
"As in, Brooke Davis, absentee Godmother to my son?"
"Haley…"
"Look Lucas" She says tiredly. "Are you coming home? James is missing you and I really need you right now."
"I…Haley, I… Brooke had a daughter, I have…we have a daughter."
"You have a daughter? With Brooke? And what, she just kept her from you all these years? How is that even possible?"
"It's complicated."
"Lucas, complicated is when you sleep with your girlfriend's best friend, or when you're still married to someone who insists on being a complete asshole."
"That's not fair."
"What's not fair?" Haley bites. "None of this is fair Luke, not Brooke, not Nathan, not anything."
"Can I just…call you later?" Lucas asks as Rachel appears in the doorway, her face shocked. He doesn't wait for an answer, hanging up anyway because he hasn't got the time or the capacity to feel guilty towards Haley.
"Lucas?"
"Rachel." He nods gruffly, his eyes flicking towards the kitchen where Brooke had disappeared to make them each a cup of coffee.
"What are you doing here?" She asks, but before he can reply with something along the lines of 'to find out the truth', he hears a tiny voice, one calling for her Mommy to tell her that they've rented 'Bratz the Movie'. Again.
"Oh…"Skye trails off, seeing Lucas sat on the couch, cell phone still in his hand as he shifts uncomfortably.
"Hi Skye."
"How do you know my name?" She questions, her eyes blue and bright and shinning, just like Brooke's always had done, yet exactly the same colour of his.
"Your Mommy told me about you." He smiles. "I used to know her in high school."
"Oh." The little girl contemplates. "That was a lot of years ago."
"Only four years." Lucas tells her with a small laugh. "We're not that old."
"That's my number! Four is my number of years old!" She exclaims excitedly, giving him a small, shy wave before bouncing into the kitchen clutching their rental dvd.
He can hear Brooke fake enthusiasm for the next couple hours as she has to watch young girls doing cheesy friendship stuff with ridiculous songs in the background, Skye growing more excited before Brooke laughs and tells her to calm down.
He'd give anything to have that though: friendship. Sure, he had Haley, but he'd lost Nathan, and Peyton and Brooke, especially Brooke. He'd even missed Rachel, as much as she'd annoyed him back in high school, yet when he watches her inspect her nails as though all of this was normal, something snaps.
"Nice of you to go along with Brooke's little secret." Lucas hisses at her, the redhead unsure of how to respond.
"Hey! Don't blame me, it's what Brooke wanted. She's my best friend, I keep her secrets."
"Shame you didn't think like that when you played the video from the time capsule." Lucas bites back, catching a shocked Brooke giving him one of her disgusted looks in the doorway.
"Hey Princess." Rachel calls to Skyla. "How about we go out to the grocery store? We forgot popcorn!"
Skyla giggles and Brooke mouths 'thank you' to the girl who's been the best support she'll ever know, as they leave, a quick glance back to the couch where Lucas is sitting before Rachel closes the door.
"That was out of line." Brooke says coldly, almost slamming Lucas' cup of coffee in front of him. "You can blame me for not telling you about Skye, but not Rachel. She only did what I asked her to do."
-
It's awkward between them, neither wanting to acknowledge what had happened, neither wanting to explain, neither wanting to say what they really wanted. They'd made small talk, chatting about how cold it's been lately, how busy they are at work, how the coffee they're drinking is fair trade, yet none of it contains details, nothing of interest. Nothing about Nathan or Haley or Peyton. Nothing about high school or college or their daughter.
But it's getting to Lucas, and he can't not know.
"How did you manage it Brooke?" He asks softly, looking around the room at the photos.
"I got paid a lot more than I thought I would, and Rach buys the food rather than paying rent…"
"No." He shakes his head. "I mean, how did you manage to keep everyone from finding out. You never even looked pregnant."
She shrugs in that same nonchalant manner that she always adopted back in high school, back when Lucas thought he knew her. "Everyone was focused on Haley. It helped that she was further along than me, so her stomach was bigger anyway."
"Brooke..." Lucas raises his eyebrows at her, knowing that hiding a pregnancy could never be that easy. "You still wore your cheerleaders uniform."
She dips her head, her lips poised over the cup of coffee in her hand.
"Fine." Brooke rolls her eyes a little, trying to be as brave as she can, but when Lucas offers her a sad smile, it's all she can do not to cry and yell that he should have been there to take care of her. "It was really hard." She replies honestly, biting her bottom lip as she moves the coffee a little further away from her face. "I didn't eat…"
"You didn't eat?" Lucas half-shouts almost disapprovingly.
"No!" Brooke returns. "I didn't eat for most of the time. I didn't eat chocolate or candy or ice cream or chips or pizza or any of that stuff you're supposed to crave when you're pregnant. If I ate, I had salads or fruit and water, and you know what? You don't get to judge me because you weren't there Lucas!"
Her face is red from anger and her eyes look like they might give way to a waterfall at any time. Her hands tremble and even though Lucas wants to scream at her, all he can think about is kissing her bottom lip to stop it from shaking, running over the gloss with his tongue until she moans softly, just like she used to five years ago.
"Can't we go back five years?" He asks aloud, Brooke frowning at him, not knowing whether he wants her to answer, whether he expects her to answer. "I could have got you to stay, I shouldn't have let you end things between us."
Brooke shakes her head. "Don't say things like that Lucas."
"I could have told you that I loved you more than anyone, and that you were the most important thing. You'd have told me that you were pregnant and I'd have promised things would be alright." He continues , undeterred by Brooke's response. "I'd have been the proudest dad. I'd have endured all the pink and the Barbies and the disinterest towards basketball."
Brooke only shakes her head again, no. "It wouldn't have worked Lucas." She chokes. "We wouldn't have done or said any of those things."
"But…"
"But nothing Lucas." She urges. "So what if we'd stayed together? We'd have fought and kept secrets because that's what happened to us! We'd have been like those couples you see on Jerry Springer. I couldn't have put Skye through that."
"It wouldn't have happened." He replies confidently.
"Yes it would, and you know it."
-
Rachel and Skyla returned a good hour later, with popcorn and ice cream and a huge bar of Hersheys cookies and cream, Brooke's favourite.
"You've done a really great job with her Brooke." Lucas tells hr, getting up to put his coat on.
"It wasn't all me. Rachel helped a lot."
"Still, you've given her everything." He smiles, watching the little girl sit down in front of the television excitedly.
"Excuse me Skyla Davies." Brooke eyes her daughter with a raised brow. "What do we do before we watch a movie?"
The little girl drops her head dejectedly. "Have a bath."
"That's right, now why don't you run the water and I'll be there in a minute."
"But baths are boring." She pouts. "And they take too long."
"How about a bath with bubbles?" Lucas suggests. "Those kind of baths aren't boring, and you can make fun beards with the bubbles."
"Really?" Skye giggles. "Beards? But I'm a girl. Girls don't have beards."
"That's what makes it fun." He replies with a smile. "And when I'm done talking to your Mommy, maybe she'll come and have a bubble beard too."
Brooke smiles and Lucas offers her a wink.
"I want to tell her Brooke." He says, almost urgently. "About me."
"About you?"
"That I'm her father. She should know. I want her to know."
"I…"
"Please." He begs, a lump forming in his throat as Brooke stares down at the floor.
"I think we should wait."
"But…"
"She might be confused Lucas. I don't want to scare her if she feels like you're a stranger."
"You made me the stranger! If you'd only told me, told her even, things wouldn't be like this."
"Brooke did what she thought was best." Rachel fights for her friend, sick of listening to the two of them from her position in the kitchen. She'd decided it was neutral territory, leaving her out of this whole mess, but right now, she couldn't stand to have Lucas talking to Brooke like all of this was her fault.
"Who asked you?" Lucas shouts. "Skye is my daughter and until today, I did even know that! You've been here for four years of her life, and I haven't even had four hours!"
"Because you weren't there for Brooke!" Rachel argues. "You can't be there for the girl you're supposed to love, how the hell could she expect you to be there for her and Skye?"
"Rach…" Brooke says softly, trying to get her friend to back down.
"No Brooke, he can't just show up here and upset you like this!"
"And you can't tell me how to treat the girl who kept my child a secret from me!"
"And you can't preach when you cheated on her twice! With her best friend." Rachel shouts.
Brooke only stands there, slightly shaken and sick as everything she's had to get past, every feeling she's tried to forget comes right back as though it hasn't been away.
"Sorry." Rachel says, looking at Brooke. "I was only trying…"
"I know." The brunette nods with a sad smile towards her now-best friend. "But…" Her eyes flick to Lucas, his coat on ready to leave. "Maybe I should…"
The redhead nods and shoots Lucas a scowl as Skyla shouts from the bathroom. "You want me to bath her?"
"No." Brooke shakes her head. "Thanks Rach but you've had her all day, you should have a rest."
She nods knowingly, yet gives a reassuring wink that she doesn't mind.
"But you should come." Brooke says a little coldly to Lucas.
"Me?"
"Yeah." She shrugs. "Someone needs to show her how to make these bubble beards."
-
"Auntie Rach!" Skyla screams, giggling hysterically as Brooke makes a noise that resembles 'h, ho, ho' before coughing the bubbles from out of her mouth that had crept in accidentally. Lucas and Sykla too, had their faces covered in bubbles, with 'extra special bubble hair' for the little girl, courtesy of Lucas.
"What the…" Rachel laughs a little, staring at the three of them in the bathroom.
"Auntie Rach you need a bubble beard too! Mommy make one for Auntie Rach!" Skye instructs, giggling as Brooke begins to cover Rachel's face in strawberry-scented bubble bath.
"Now we're the bubble beard family!" The little girl exclaims, clapping her hands and laughing as the three of them blow their bubbles across the tub. Rachel catches the exchange between the two parents, choosing to ignore it as Brooke plasters a smile across her face for the sake of her daughter.
"This is the funnest bath." She tells them as Lucas smiles proudly.
"See? I told you baths weren't always boring."
"If you're Mommy's friend, can you do bubble beard baths every time?"
"I…"
"I'm not sure about every time baby." Brooke cuts in, rescuing Lucas somewhat, yet crushing him all the same. "Lucas doesn't live here, he's only visiting."
Seeing the look on Lucas' face, Rachel takes over, making excuses that she should finish bathing Skye because after all, she's 'cooler than Mommy'.
-
"What are you doing Brooke?" Lucas asks, almost angrily. "To me, to Skye? Won't it confuse her even more to tell her that I'm her father after she thinks we're friends."
"It was you that told her that, not me!" The brunette defends. "We were never friends Lucas and you know it."
"We were!"
"No we weren't. We weren't friends when we first got together, or after we broke up the first time." Brooke adds. "We weren't friends the second time we were together, or the second time we broke up, or the night we slept together and got Skye as a result. Hell, we weren't even friends the night we promised we'd be friends!"
She's pacing the room now, still wearing silk and cashmere and expensive lip gloss. "We had strong feeling for each other, good and bad, but none of that was friendship. We did a relationship Lucas, or we did nothing. There wasn't room for anything in between, and there isn't now."
"Then lets do that."
"Lets do what?"
"Make things work. We have a chance, a reason to be together this time."
Brooke scoffs and Lucas squints, hurt. "If you think having Skye is a reason to be together, you're wrong. I've done fine without a relationship for the last four years, without you for the last four years. I don't need to start now."
"Mommy why are you shouting at your friend?" Skye asks, stood at the doorway in pink satin pyjamas, looking every inch like the princess Rachel calls her.
"I wasn't shouting at him baby, I was just…"
"I said something that was wrong, and I shouldn't have." Lucas tells his daughter softly. "Your Mommy was just correcting me."
"Oh." She replies, seemingly happy with the answer as she skips past them to resume her position in front of the television.
-
Lucas makes his excuses and leaves, not without writing down his cell number, pressing it into Brooke's hand and keeping his fingers there, perhaps just a little too long.
"Don't worry, I got 'The Notebook' for later." Rachel winks at her friend, preparing to watch Bratz for the millionth time. "I don't know why we just don't buy this."
Brooke's not listening though. She's busy wondering why she felt her chest ache when Lucas told Skyla that he'd said something he shouldn't have. The more she thinks about it, when she lets herself, the more she wants to be a family, with a house and two cars and a dog. She wants marriage and more children, and she doesn't want to be in this situation, hiding the paternity of her daughter's father. And probably the worst thing about all of this, is that she wants nothing more than for it to be Lucas that lies next to her when she falls into bed after another long day at work, Lucas who goes to the store to buy pickles and jelly, and Lucas that teaches her children to say 'Mommy'.
"Earth to Brooke!" Rachel calls.
"Sorry." She mumbles, facing her body towards the screen, but she's still not listening. She's dizzy from Lucas shouting at her, tingling, from where he placed the tiniest piece of paper in her hand for the tiniest second too long.
"Are you thinking about him?" Rachel asks, and Brooke lies, shaking her head, no.
But she is, and if they weren't supposed to work, if they weren't supposed to be together, Brooke can't figure out why all she wants now, is him.
Pretty please review guys :)
xxx