Hi everyone! Well, I finally shook the flu, but now I have a sprained ankle. Life is just fabulous. But the good news for you is that I've been in bed all day with my foot propped up, so I had plenty of time to write! As with my other story, if you guys have any suggestions for things you want to see, please let me know. The romance situation is pretty much set in stone, so I wouldn't even bother with that. But if you want to see more interactions between certain characters or see the kids get into a certain kind of trouble, feel free to let me know! Enjoy!
A couple of hours later, the entire extended Scott/Roe/Hargrove/Davis/Sawyer family was enjoying a very happy reunion. Jamie, Chelsea and Lily had retired to Jamie's room to play after they had eaten a mandatory amount of dinner. Nate and Luke were talking sports and drinking beers on the back deck with Andy, while Karen and the other girls were slowly finishing up dinner in the living room.
"Oh, Haley," Karen said, setting down her empty plate on the coffee table. "I think the student has become the teacher! Dinner was delicious."
"I did learn from the best," Haley said with a smile. "Don't praise me too much, though; you still haven't tasted the peach pie. It's my first attempt at making it."
"Well, I'm going to have to wait awhile before I can eat anything else. But in the meantime, why don't you relax while I get things cleaned up?" Karen said, starting to rise to her feet.
"Don't even think about it," Brooke said, placing her hand on Karen's wrist to stop her. "Miss Samantha is on cleaning duty tonight."
"Mom!" Sam complained. "There's like, a million dishes to wash! Can't I just have one night of freedom?"
"I think that the little party you threw qualifies as about ten days too much freedom," Brooke said sternly.
"Okay, compromise," Karen said, seeing that Sam was about to start protesting again. "I will help Sam clean up and make sure she does a good job. That way she and I can have a chance to get to know each other and you girls can talk wedding plans."
Brooke gave Karen a mock glare. "You always know my weak spot," she grumbled. "Fine, help her, but if there are any disgusting plates, she's responsible for them."
"Duly noted," Karen said with a chuckle. "Come on, Sam, we'll try to make this as painless as possible."
As soon as Sam and Karen were out of earshot, Haley broke into a big grin. "God, I didn't realize how much I missed her until now."
"Not me," Brooke said wistfully. "I've never stopped missing her." With a sigh, she turned to Peyton and smiled. "So, P. Sawyer, I finished your dress yesterday. It should cover that post-baby belly that you'll have pretty well. And I just finished the design for a gorgeous bridesmaid's dress for yours truly."
Peyton laughed. "Actually, I think that design is going to have to be approved by one more person," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "Lucas and I have been talking, and we want Sam to be a bridesmaid as well."
Brooke's eyes widened. "Oh my god, Peyton, she'll be thrilled!" she gushed. "But wait, what about Haley?"
"Oh, we didn't tell you? I'm going to be the minister," Haley said. "Yeah, Lucas ordained me online or something-I think he's nuts, but it's what he wants."
"And Lucas is asking Andy to stand up for him with Nathan, in Keith's place," Peyton said. "And if they're willing, we want Chelsea and Lily to be co-flower girls, with Jamie as the ring-bearer."
"We should probably change the invitations to say 'The Sawyer-Scott Family Affair' instead of 'The Sawyer-Scott Wedding'," Brooke joked. "Aside from Karen, I don't think there will be anyone left in the congregation."
"We'll have plenty of people to see your beautiful dress designs, B. Davis; don't you worry," Peyton said. "Now let's talk flowers."
While the girly talk was going on in the living room, the guy talk on the back deck had switched from sports to fatherhood.
"You getting nervous about this father thing, big bro?" Nathan asked, taking a swig from his Budweiser.
"I don't know, man," Lucas said, resting his elbows on his knees and looking out over the pool. "One minute I'm so excited I feel like I'm five years old and it's Christmas. The next minute I'm so scared that I feel like I'm five years old and it's storming on Halloween night."
"You're going to be a great father, Luke," Andy said reassuringly. "You had Keith as an example your whole life."
"Yeah," Nathan chimed in. "Hell, I had Dan as my example, and I'd like to think I'm doing okay."
The three men all gave grim chuckles at that point. "I'd like to think I'm doing okay with Lily, too," Andy said. "And I didn't even have nine months to prepare for her. I think being a father is something that just comes naturally to any good man."
"Keith would be happy to know that Lily has such a great stepfather," Lucas said sincerely. "I'm really grateful that you've been there for Lily and my mom. You've done an amazing job."
"Thank you, Luke," Andy responded, giving the young man a soft smile. "I like to think I am. Of course, there are some days where I still don't know what the hell I'm doing. Last month, for example, we docked in Greece, and Karen went onshore to go buy some groceries, while I stayed on the boat with Lily. I do this all the time, but we had some rough waters the night before, and I didn't sleep well. I was lying in a deck chair watching Lily play, and before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep."
"Oh man," Luke groaned. "If I know my baby sister, I can imagine this did not turn out well."
"It didn't, for either of us," Andy said drily. "I woke up to the sound of your mom screaming. When I sat up, I saw Lily doing chin-ups on the yacht railing, dangling over the ocean."
Nathan and Luke both burst out laughing at that image. "Oh man, what did you do?" Nathan asked.
"Well, I pulled her back over to safety, but after that I didn't do much of anything," Andy admitted. "As soon as I set her down on the deck, Karen pulled her across her knee and gave her the spanking of her life. And after that was over, she proceeded to yell at me for exactly thirty six minutes straight, with no pauses in between."
Lucas started to laugh again, but he choked it back when he saw the chagrined expression on Andy's face. "Well Andy, you knew when you married my mom that she could crack the whip-no matter how old you are," he said, shaking his head in mock reproach.
Nathan gave a contented sigh and leaned back in his deck chair. "I officially no longer feel like a pathetic excuse for a father and uncle for letting Jamie and Chelsea fall in the pool," he said.
"Nate, you handled that situation perfectly," Luke told him for the twentieth time. "Again, considering that you had Dan as your example. I mean, did the man ever actually discipline you, with the exception of subjecting you to emotional abuse and intense basketball training?"
Nathan thought back on his childhood. "There was one time," he said, sitting up again. "I was six, and I was playing basketball in the driveway. I missed my shot and the ball rolled out into the street. I ran out to get it, but just as I reached it, Dan's car turned around the corner. He was coming home from work, and he stopped inches before he hit me."
"Oh god," Andy said, putting his head in his hands. "Lily hasn't lived in an actual house since she learned to walk. I don't think we've ever covered running into the street."
"Well, if she does it, just do what Dan did and she won't do it again," Nathan said. "He didn't even remember to take the keys out of the ignition before hauling me up to my room and whipping my butt. I swear I slept on my stomach for the next four nights."
"Dude, that sucks," Lucas said, draining the last of his beer.
"Not really," Nathan said, shaking his head. "Back then, Dan cared more about me than about basketball. I was mad at the time, but now when I think about it, I remember how he held me afterward until I cried myself to sleep. Those are the kinds of moments I try to remember when I don't know how to be a good Dad to Jamie."
"Well, I don't know how many moments you have to remember, little brother," Luke said seriously. "But if I can be half the father that either of you are, or that Keith was, I think my kid is going to turn out just fine."
"I'll drink to that," Andy said, clinking his beer bottle with Nathan's. The three men sat in companionable silence, each thinking of the children, born and unborn, in their lives.
As the sun set down over Tree Hill and all of the adults were enjoying some grown-up conversation, Karen stood at the kitchen sink with Sam, drying the dishes after the teen had washed them.
"So Sam, from what I recall it's been almost a year since Brooke adopted you," Karen said, drying off a butter knife. "Are you happy living with her?"
"I'm happy," Sam said, rinsing off a fork. "But, as Brooke so kindly told you over dinner, my butt isn't so happy."
Karen laughed. "Sam, if I didn't know any better, I would swear Brooke gave birth to you. You sound just like her."
"Really?" Sam said. She never told anyone, but she often imagined what her life would have been like if Brooke had been her birth mom. "No one's ever told me that before. People always think that Chelsea is hers, because she's so happy all the time."
"Well, I've seen some sides to Brooke that other people aren't privy to," Karen said. "In high school, most people just saw the happy go lucky cheerleader and student body president Brooke Davis. But, as her surrogate mother, I saw her more vulnerable side. Which, by the way, she often tried to hide with sarcastic quips, not unlike you."
"Lucas told me that she got in trouble a lot when she was my age," Sam ventured. "I didn't know if it was true or if he was just trying to cheer me up."
"Well, I'm sure he was trying to cheer you up, but every word of it was true," Karen said, smiling at the girl as she accepted a freshly rinsed plate from her. "I'm pretty sure that in the year and a half she lived with me, I had to punish her almost as many times as I had to punish Lucas in the eighteen years he lived with me."
"I guess I really am like her then," Sam sighed. "Sometimes it feels like I've spent half of this past year standing up while restricted to the house."
"Why do you think that is?" Karen asked gently, setting down her dishtowel and turning to look at Sam.
Sam shrugged and looked down at her shoes. "I guess…I'm just still not used to anyone caring about me," she said quietly. "At all my old foster homes, I could sneak out at night and not come back for days, and no one would notice."
She turned off the faucet and sighed. "The first week I was with Brooke, I snuck out like I always did. I didn't do anything wrong; I just went for a walk. I got back right as the sun was coming up. I climbed through my window, and Brooke was in my bedroom, just pacing back and forth. She looked like she hadn't slept at all. Before I could do anything, she walked over and grabbed me in the biggest hug I think I'd ever gotten. I was so surprised I didn't even move. She held me for about a minute, and then she pulled away and looked at me. No one had ever given me a look like that before. She had tears in her eyes, and she looked scared and…furious. Before I knew what was happening, she yanked me over to the bed and threw me over her lap, and just started smacking my butt."
Sam let her voice trail off, and Karen placed a hand on her shoulder. "How did you feel about that?"
"I don't know," Sam mumbled, her face flushing slightly. "It kind of freaked me out, and it hurt, but…I guess in the end, it was better than being ignored. But after it happened, I figured it was just a fluke. No one had ever given a crap before, and I figured eventually Brooke wouldn't either. So I guess I just keep breaking the rules because…"
"You're trying to make Brooke give up on you?" Karen said interjected. When Sam didn't answer, she squeezed her shoulder lightly. "Come sit down with me, Sam," she said, leading the girl over to the chairs at the counter. "I think you just described exactly what happened between Brooke and me eight years ago. Every time she did something wrong and I punished her, it was like she was surprised. For a while I thought she was surprised because she didn't understand that the things she was doing were wrong. But after a few times, I realized that she was surprised that I cared about her doing something wrong."
"Sounds familiar," Sam said, giving Karen a weak smile.
"I thought it might," Karen said, reaching out her hand and placing it over Sam's. "I've got news for you, Samantha," she said seriously. "Brooke tried as hard as she could to make me quit caring about her, and you know what? It backfired on her every time. And I know Brooke Davis well enough to know that it's going to backfire on you every time, too. She's in it for the long haul. This whole family is in it for the long haul. You're stuck with us, kid, whether you like it or not."
Sam bit her lip and looked at Karen, tears glistening in her eyes. "Now I know why everyone was so excited to have you back," she said, smiling.
Karen returned the smile. "Well, I'm glad to be back, too," she said sincerely. "I'm glad to be back to get to know the newest members of my family." With that, she reached out and wrapped Sam in a warm embrace.
Sam returned the embrace, leaning her head on Karen's shoulder. She was reluctant to let go, but a wail from upstairs caused her to yank away quickly.
"That sounded like Jamie," she said, hurrying into the living room, Karen on her heels.
"Mama!" Jamie wailed, running down the stairs into Haley's arms. "They attacked me!"
"Baby, what do you mean they…oh," Haley said, looking down at his face in surprise. "Chelsea, Lily, get down here!"
The two little girls crept to the bottom of the staircase, trying to conceal their mischievous grins. "Yes, Aunt Haley?" Lily said sweetly.
"Have you been in my make-up?" Haley asked sternly.
"Hales, they don't look like they're wearing any make-up," Peyton said in confusion.
"They aren't," Haley said, turning Jamie around to face them. "He is."
Sam snorted with laughter at the sight of Jamie, who was covered in pink lipstick and purple eye shadow. "I'm sorry, Jamie," she said, trying to stop smiling. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise."
"Chelsea Lynn, what is this?" Brooke asked in astonishment.
"I could ask you the same question, young lady," Karen said, giving Lily a hard look.
"Beauty Parlor," the two girls chorused, looking quite pleased with themselves despite the admonishing looks surrounding them.
Jamie huffed buried his face in Haley's shirt. "This isn't what I meant when I said I wanted them to be friends," he grumbled.
Haley looked down sympathetically at her little boy before looking back up at the other women in the room. They all stared at each other for a second before bursting into peals of laughter.
"Oh baby," Haley said, rubbing Jamie's hair affectionately. "Welcome to being outnumbered by females."
I seriously love Karen. I would cry happy tears if she made an appearance in the 9th season of OTH. Coming up next: I'm not telling! You'll just have to leave me plenty of reviews with words of encouragement to make me write faster ;)
