Mary C-Thank you for your kind review. Clay saw what he wanted and went for it, Lucas will either need to put up or shut up.

Guest-I love Clay/Brooke stories too. My favorite is Today Was a Fairytale by my friend Krystal, I know she's been MIA lately. Writer's block stinks, hopefully that will change for her soon. Back to your review, I am looking forward to writing Brooke and Logan meeting. I just didn't want to do it too soon, any comments on how many dates they should go on before Clay takes her to meet his son?

Naley23alwaysforever-You are 100% right about Clay offering advice. It will start to happen when he tells Brooke more about Sara and his past... I sense it will be another opportunity for Lucas to hate him but we will see soon enough. Ding ding! Dr. Bishop will be a therapist making their story debut here in the next few chapters, the character is AU but is borrowed a lot from my older sister - the inspiration for this story.

thibbs65-Thank you for your review, alert and kind words. Writing is one of my favorite hobbies and I do it because I like it, but it's great when other people give you accolades.

Guest-Thank you so much for your review. I have a rough outline of the next dozen chapters or so, so far those have been keeping me on track but we are still mostly in the setup to where the story is going to go. So please keep reading, glad you like it so far.

Krystal-I know you didn't review but I just wanted to say thank you again for looking over this chapter and giving me a few ideas on subtle touches to add to the chapter. You know you're one of my all time favorites, I hope the writer's block clears up soon and you start updating your stories again. I miss them, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Contagious Chemistry

Chapter 6: Maybe we'll meet at a club, and fall so deeply off a bridge...

The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained. - Bilal Nasir Khan

Flashback

What the hell am I doing here? I wonder to myself as I watch my remaining Sigma Chi brethren jump into what I assume can only be frigid water. I let out a deep breath and remove my shoes, "how's it feel guys?"

"Stop stalling Evans, ya big pussy!" One of the seniors crows from the water. "Jump now freshman that's an order."

I nod and walk along the pedestrian side of the bridge that heads into town, it's October and I can feel the wind begin to pick up, why are we doing this again? I glare down at the guys bobbing in the water and hear another quick succession of splashes. I step on a rock and mutter to myself, I am about to just turn around when I see her… Long honey blonde curls and she's shaking like a leaf. "Nervous?"

She scowls in my direction, "I could tell you the same thing."

I nod again, step over the guardrail and inch towards her. "I thought this was just a stupid frat boy thing?"

"Nope," she looks down and bites on her bottom lip. "Sorority girls at this school are a bunch of joiners I guess. I knew I should have gone to school in California."

Her cheeks flush and I want to ask her what her name is, if she's seeing someone, does she prefer diamonds or sapphires and everything in between. My heart is telling me she is special so I continue to inch closer. "How about we jump together?"

She brushes the hair from her face and I get a better glimpse of her sparkling blue eyes, "yeah, okay."

I rest my hand on hers. "On the count of two we jump in together."

"The count of two?" She questions with an arched eyebrow.

I chuckle, "yes. We are gonna blaze our own path honey, we're in such a hurry we can't wait till three." I feel my cheeks ache with the giant grin they're trying to hold up, "just think of it, this will be something we can tell our grandchildren someday."

Her eyes widen and I fear I might have blown my shot, "alright on the count of two." She places her hand in mine, "one…"

"Two…" We both push off from the bridge and jump. My body hits the water and instead of gasping for breath I feel warmth emanating from my hand under the mystery girl's touch. I shake my head when I reach the surface and I hear the guys screaming my name, but my attention is only on the girl still gripping my hand tightly.

Before I can stop her she throws her hands around my neck and kisses me hard, she tastes of cherries and vanilla and I feel my body getting away from me fast. All I want to do is give in to the arousal and insist we head back to the Sigma Chi house. But my lustful thoughts are squelched when only a few seconds later it's over and she wipes the water from her face, "there… now that's a story for the grandchildren." She ducks away from me and swims to the shore.

"What's your name?" I call out before I can get my body in gear to swim after her.

I cannot take my eyes off of her as she pulls a rubber band from her wrist and wraps her hair into a tight bun, "Sara." She smiles, smiling is always a good sign I reassure myself, "my name is Sara."

End Flashback

Clay jumped up with a start at the sound of his 6:45am wake up call. He often dreamt of his Sara but today was different, it felt so real. He half expected her to be lying next to him, he looked down at his hands, "I could feel her touching me…" He trailed off, not wanting to dwell too much in the moment, there was a long drive in his future and he didn't need the distraction. Charlotte and Tree Hill were roughly four hours apart, longer with traffic, shorter if the roads were clear and Clay really let Claudine fly. I will end up driving the speed limit the entire way home, Clay says to himself, Logan can't be an orphan before his seventh birthday. His thoughts were interrupted for a second time in as many minutes; this time by his ringing cell phone, "this is Clay."

"Hey it's Nate," Nathan Scott whispered into the receiver. "How did everything go with Davis yesterday?"

Clay shook his head and snickered, "hiding from Haley I presume."

"No!" Nathan bellowed before clearing his throat and continuing in the same hushed tone, "Haley isn't the boss of me. Now cut it out and answer the question."

Thinking of the cheery brunette made Clay smile from ear to ear, "we had a nice time. When I come back to Tree Hill next week we're going out again."

Nathan fist pumped the open air around him, "I knew you two would hit it off. I haven't ever seen you light up like that before man, I'm just glad you gave in to my pestering and came by a few days ago."

"Me too," Clay conceded, "although a heads up that she was pregnant with your brother's kids would have been nice. I mean it doesn't really matter that Brooke is pregnant, she won't be that way for much longer." He was surprised by his candor about the situation and honestly the pregnancy didn't bother him, the only thing he worried about was Lucas Scott meddling in their affairs when they were just beginning to get to know each other. "What was his problem yesterday, he said something to Brooke and after he stormed out of the cafe she clammed up tight. I didn't think she would agree to a second date after that."

Nathan sighed heavily, "Luke has to work through some issues. Just don't let him stop you from seeing Brooke again." Nathan paused awkwardly, not sure of how to proceed, "are you going to introduce her to Logan?"

"No," Clay answered quickly, "it's much too early for that sort of thing. We didn't even talk about Logan, mostly we talked about Brooke. I know a lot about her now, you didn't tell me that she was Jamie and Lydia's godmother." Is that wrong? I didn't think to mention my son to a girl I'm interested in, she seems to enjoy being around children. What was I waiting for? "We didn't talk about Sara either… is that weird? Should I have mentioned Sara right away?"

"No," Nathan reaffirmed. "You can tell her when you're ready Clay and Brooke is going to love Logan when she meets him."

Clay laughed to himself, "we went on one date Nathan. I don't think we will be discussing wedding venues anytime soon."

"You never know, Haley and I were only together a few months before we got married. Aside from a few growing pains it's been ten amazing years."

I had that once Clay mused to himself, "I need to get going, I have a long drive ahead of me and I want to get to Charlotte before dark."

"I understand, drive safe man. We'll talk at the end of the week." Nathan was about to leave for the pre-season and he knew contract negotiations were coming up soon. He loved watching Clay in agent mode, the man was a pit-bull and Nathan counted himself lucky to have him in his corner. He looked up and saw Haley in the hallway with her delicate hands folded across her chest, "I gotta run too. Talk soon. Bye" before he got an answer he ended the call and slid the phone back into his jean pocket. "Good morning my beautiful wife. What would you like for breakfast this morning? My treat."

"I thought we agreed you weren't going to insert yourself in Clay and Brooke's affairs?" Haley scolded, "and our accounts are joint. It isn't ever really your treat."

"Affairs," Nathan balks, "they went on one date Haley. You need to get a hold of yourself woman." If only she knew what he had been saying a few minutes ago...

Instead of pursuing the conversation further, Haley thought it best to just let Nathan have this one. If a decade of marriage had taught her nothing else it was the importance of letting her husband think he got one over on her every now and again. "Eggs and french toast… and bacon."

Nathan jogged to her and planted a kiss on her forehead before making a beeline to the kitchen to get started, he was glad she hadn't given him a hard time over Clay and Brooke, "I love you Haley James."

"I love you too Nathan Scott," she pulled her robe tighter, "I'm starving. I'll get Jamie up for the assist."

"Is he still mad at me for embarrassing him in front of…" Nathan searched for the girl's name, "Chloe?"

"Cynthia," Haley corrected. "He spent a lot of time whining, but I'm sure he's over it by now."

"Terrific." Nathan turned his baseball cap backwards and yelled up the back staircase, "James Lucas Scott!"

"Wake the entire block why don't you?" Haley giggled.

Jamie stumbled down the stairs, "where's the fire?"

"No fire, I just need my skipper to help me with breakfast."

Jamie rubbed his head and yawned, "when do you leave again dad?"

"A few days," Nathan frowned.

"Good…" Jamie yawned again and rolled his eyes, "I'll miss you."

Lucas opened his eyes and immediately regretted drinking so heavily the night before. "Peyt!" He howled from his bed, "can you bring me some Tylenol?" My head is killing me, he added to himself. When Peyton didn't come he got up, worried that he had only dreamt that his wife had returned from her trip early, "if that's the case I really need to stop drinking." He opened the door that flowed into the hallway, "Peyton!"

"Good morning broody," Brooke said with a smile as she peeked her head out from the kitchen.

She looked radiant in a simple wrap dress, "did I miss something?"

"It's nursery day," Peyton said matter of factly from beside Brooke. Lucas couldn't help but smile as Peyton slid her hand lovingly across Brooke's rounded stomach. "And boy are they excited."

"Oh yeah," Lucas quickly met them in the kitchen and placed his hand over Peyton's.

"Hmmm," Brooke huffed, "they were just going crazy. Maybe they don't like you."

"Ha ha very funny." Lucas pouted, "I need to apologize for my behavior yesterday afternoon. I don't know what came over me, will you forgive me cheery?"

Brooke kinked an eyebrow his direction and nodded her head, "don't I always forgive you? What do you think Vilula, Tennessee? Do you think daddy's sorry for being a meanie to Zia Brooke?"

"Veto." Peyton laughed, "come on I am dying to open those boxes on the table. Come on Lucas, Brooke brought the babies a present." She was fidgeting, "I had to wait until you got up. Can I open them now Brooke, please?"

"You are worse the Jamie and Lydia during Christmas time P. Sawyer, you know that don't you?"

Peyton didn't wait for any other confirmation, she ran to the table and removed the lids from both boxes and shrieked. "Brooke these mobile's are gorgeous." Peyton pulled out the first one to show to Lucas, the top hoop was woven with delicate fishing line and crystal bubbles and beads hung at different lengths. "This must have cost a fortune."

Brooke shrugged her shoulders, "I know a guy. You should see it hanging, it sparkles so much it looks like it glows. Show Lucas the other one," Brooke put her head on his shoulder, "now this one you're going to love."

Peyton places the bubble chandelier back in the box gently and pulls out the second mobile, "no way." Lucas grinned, "winged keys. When we agreed on a Harry Potter themed nursery I will admit I was skeptical but wow, that thing looks awesome." The keys were all the same shade of metallic silver with translucent plastic wings, and similar to the crystal bubble mobile the keys were all dangling at different lengths. "So how did everything go with Clay last night?"

"Lucas don't you have a call you need to make?" Peyton interrupted from the table, "Brooke and I will just be here waiting for you."

She gave Lucas an exaggerated fake smile and he knew he better not push his luck, "I do, I'll be right back." He heard Peyton ask Brooke to tell her all about Clay and he again grew jealous of this complete and total stranger who had popped into his world less than 48 hours ago.

"Hey kid have you seen Professor X around here?"

The small boy sitting on the porch looked up from his X-Men toys, "daddy!" He ran down the steps and leapt into Clay's waiting arms. "Gammy didn't think you were going to make it back home today. How was Thneedville?"

He looks so much like his mother when he smiles, it kills me every time. "I was in Tree Hill and it was nice, the next time I go you are going to have to come with me. How's the asthma?"

"Fine, Papa said I only have to use my breathing machine one more time and I'll be good as new." Logan went back to his toys, "I miss New York, I never had to use my nebulizer when we lived there."

Oh to be a kid again, the lack of long term memory is certainly amusing. "Logan you know that you had to use your nebulizer in New York, that's why we bought Sami the Seal." Sami the Seal was a fun seal shaped nebulizer that Logan spotted in the doctor's office almost a year ago and he insisted the only machine that could make his asthma disappear was a bright blue Sami the Seal nebulizer so of course Clay had to buy him one.

Logan launched Wolverine and Cyclops off the top step into the grass, "oh… I guess you're right dad. So are we staying and having dinner with Gammy and Papa? Gammy is making chicken alfredo and garlic bread."

"There is no place else I would rather be kid." Clay ruffled Logan's light locks and let his mind drift to the possibility of introducing Brooke Davis to his son… someday.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Clay/Sara flashback.. I am going to have a few more of them in the upcoming chapters. I'm also thinking about incorporating Brooke/Lucas and Brooke/Lucas/Peyton flashbacks.. I think it might really help flesh out the back story, shed some light on why Lucas is jealous of Brooke's budding relationship with Clay and why he saw a therapist in the beginning. What do you guys think? Plus I know there wasn't any Brooke/Clay this chapter, but I want you to know the next chapter is going to have tons of Brooke/Clay.. So please keep reading.

Alex