Lucas stepped over to the open window and closed it over so it lay ajar. He always wanted it to be open for Peyton to climb through. He smiled as he remembered how Peyton told him how she would leave the porch light on for her dad when he was away at sea.
Still smiling Lucas entered the large kitchen three storeys below. His family and Brooke noticed the smile and look from one to another before Karen asked, "Everything ok Lucas?"
"Yeah, everything is absolutely great mom, why?" Lucas looked at his family suspiciously, as they watched him sit at the table. He sat on the wooden chair opposite Keith and Karen and next to Nathan and Brooke.
"You just seem…happy," Karen said lightly though she was evidently prying for more.
"I am happy," Lucas smiled broadened slightly. He was so glad that he no longer had to lie about his feelings, he was happy; Peyton was finally in his life she was not dead. However, Brooke's next question made him think that perhaps the lies were only to begin.
"So, which girlie friend of mine shall I thank then?" Brooke asked cheerily. Lucas internally froze; he did not know how to respond. How was he supposed to respond 'oh just the best friend you thought was dead; she has been visiting my attic.' He turned to face Brooke, could he really lie to her, "Ask no questions and I shall tell you no lies," he mused hopefully sufficiently.
"Come on, please," Brooke batted her eyelids that only made Lucas laugh.
"Nathan's the only Scott that works on," Lucas teased Brooke; she pouted her lips and sat back in her chair for a moment making everyone in the room chuckle lightly.
"How about…you bring this girl to the end of summer dance we are having in two weeks and I shall ask you no more questions about her," Brooke challenged Lucas after she had evidently thought long and hard.
"Deal," Lucas shook hands with her before tucking into the delicious food Karen had laid before them. Brooke sat back in her chair looking extremely satisfied with herself. As Lucas silently ate, he thought back to the events of that afternoon. He had enjoyed every minute of it because even when Peyton cried and it broke his heart he could still take comfort in the fact that she was opening up to him. However, he did shudder at the thought of her reaction to his 'deal' with Brooke. He knew Peyton would take persuading and he knew there was a very high chance that Brooke would pissed off that he had not told her straight away. These were risks he was willing to take though, for now, for her.
Dinner had long since ended and Brooke and Nathan had retired to Nathan's bedroom for the night. Lucas had entered his as soon as dinner had ended, not out of rudeness but it was known to everyone that Lucas had other 'things' on his mind. In truth, he had been nothing but excited to leave the dinner table so he could spend the many hours the night held dreaming and remembering the girl he…liked? Not strong enough. Loved? Too strong? Maybe his dreams could decide, that was after all one thing he knew, she was the girl of his dreams.
Brooke and Nathan had just finished their long anticipated heated make out session. Nathan draped his long, strong muscular arms around Brooke's barely dressed body and held her close.
"So, Ms Davies will you go to the summer dance with me?" Nathan proposed with a smile as he looked down into Brooke's large eyes that smiled up at him.
"Well it took you long enough," Brooke joked, "Of course I will," she pouted her lips to invite Nathan to kiss them, which he did.
"Good," Nathan kissed the top of her head and the two relaxed beneath the dark blue duvet cover.
"Night Nate," Brooke mumbled into his chest before she fell asleep.
"I love you," Nathan whispered before he too entered a deep sleep.
In the bedroom beneath Nathan's another, older, brunette couple lay barely dressed in each other's arms. Keith rolled onto his side, placed a weathered hand upon Karen's slightly protruding stomach, and smiled as he turned his eyes so their eyes met. Karen placed a hand to his cheek and breathed deeply, "I'm glad Lucas is happy, I was starting to worry he just seemed so 'off', you know?"
"Yeah," Keith placed his other, free, arm around Karen's shoulders and pulled her into his bare chest so her ears could meet his heartbeat, "He's a good kid though, they both are, they were always going to be ok."
"And us? We're going to be ok aren't we?" Karen clarified.
"We already are ok honey and you know what even if we weren't, even if we stop being, the end result will always be the greatest," Keith pressed a deeply caring kiss to his wife's forehead.
"I believe you," was all Karen said; all she had to say before the two finally fell into the land of slumber.
The stayed in this slumbering silence for the next two hours, that was until…
"Aaargh!"
Karen's painful screams rang through the old house like a church bell rings through a deserted town, it was shrill, terrifying and caused those she had created to run to her.
Lucas flew down the carpeted stairs three at a time and landed with a soft thump outside of his mother and uncle's room. His soft hand pushed the door open lightly; he reached inside for the light switch to his right.
The light flickered on and off before finally illuminating the scene. Karen was sat up, holding her stomach with pain induced tears streaming down her face. Keith was knelt next to her, pulling her shaking body into his.
Lucas stared at the couple: speechless. He began to walk forward, not averting his gaze until he felt his foot fall into a hot, sticky substance. He lowered his blue eyes and almost retched at the blood, "Mom…" he began but could not finish his sentence. Lucas refused to turn his head towards the open door after hearing the sounds of feet beating against the upper floors.
"I'll call an ambulance," he heard Nathan say.
Minutes that lasted an eternity dragged on until eventually the paramedics entered the bedroom. Karen was placed upon a stretcher with Keith walking by her side holding her hand as tightly as he could but saying nothing. What could he say? What could he do? How could he make this better? It killed him when the answer was nothing.
The hospital corridor was decorated with blue wallpaper and white tiles. The reception desk that encircled the nurses who were paid to be friendly stood to the left of where Nathan and Brooke sat on bluey-green plastic chairs and Lucas paced on the pale blue and grey speckled linoleum floor.
"Dude, you're gonna wear a hole in the floor," Nathan ventured feebly. Lucas responded with a curt but not intentionally rude nod and continued to pace, forward and backward, forward and backward, forward and backward, forward and… "Luc," Lucas' blue eyes swiftly left the floor to look into his uncle's darker ones, "You want to meet your baby sister?"
"What?" Lucas gasped in disbelief, behind him Brooke squealed with delight.
"Your baby sister, she's here," Keith assured his nephew. Lucas' face lit up with a broad smile as he nodded before following the older man but new father to the room that held the two most important women in his life, well two of three if he was being completely honest.
Lucas pressed open the door lightly and stepped into the lightly decorated room. Keith ushered him into the room from behind and pointed to the plastic coat situated next to the occupied bed. The bed occupied by an unconscious Karen. As Lucas approached the cot, he noticed Keith hurry to the chair he had evidently just vacated and hold Karen's limp hand in his, tightly.
Before reaching into the cot the young man quickly pressed a kiss to his mother's forehead and whispered, 'I love you, ma.' The smile that had briefly left his lips quickly returned as he looked into his baby sister's new blue eyes, wide with anticipation and excitement; her curly brown hair already flailing in every imaginable direction.
"She's beautiful," was all Lucas could breathe.
"Yeah, she is," Keith said, not removing his gaze from Karen's closed face, leaving Lucas unsure of who he was referring to but sure he meant it of both Karen and…
"Keith, what's her name?" Lucas asked suddenly as he positioned himself in a chair next to his mother.
"I don't know yet Lucas, your mom and I had hardly started deciding, we were going to do it together," Keith's voice began break so he finished his reply almost too quickly.
"You still will," Nathan's voice, sounded from the doorway.
"And if not, you could always just call her something really awesome like Brooke Penelope Scott," Brooke ventured cheerfully, causing a chuckle to ripple through the otherwise sombre room, as she bounded towards Lucas.
"But Brooke, we all know there is only one Brooke Penelope Davies," Lucas joked.
"I suppose…" Brooke pondered as she sat in the chair next to Lucas' with Nathan stood behind her. Brooke Davies was many things but she was not stupid, she could sense atmospheres in a room like no other and she knew that the three Scott men needed to talk. "Hey Broody, you mind if I take the most beautiful girl in the world on a trip?" Lucas looked to Keith uneasily, it was not that he did not trust Brooke; he was just feeling extremely protective of his newborn sister.
"Go ahead Brooke, just stay in the hospital," Keith smiled at the young woman. He admired the energy she brought and her instant understanding of situations.
The room fell into a silence with the clicking shut of the door. What was there to say? Well, besides everything. How should the questions be asked? Where should the answers come from?
Nathan decided to be the first to ask a question, "Keith man, what the hell happened?"
