The week at the cabin seemed to fly by. It wasn't long before the four returned to Tree Hill and Lucas and Brooke began to move their things in to their new apartment.

"It's even better in person!" Brooke squealed excitedly, clapping her hands joyfully. Lucas wrapped his arms around her from behind, kissing her on the cheek.

"Only the best for my pretty girl," he grinned. She smiled back at him.

"Thanks, baby daddy."

He laughed, twirling her around. "Finish unpacking, crazy girl."

"Will do," she giggled with a mock salute. He grinned as he watched her skip off to their bedroom to finish unpacking her clothes. It was so surreal to him, that in just a matter of about a month, he had nearly lost her. Now they were having a baby and were moving in together.

His phone began to ring, and he flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Well, well, hey Lucas Scott," came a cocky, arrogant voice. "It's The Keller."

"What do you want?" Lucas growled, his voice low.

"Well, I seem to have impregnated your woman. Sorry about that, by the way."

"No worries, because you didn't," was Lucas's furious reply. "The baby is mine. End of story."

"That's noble of you, Lucas, but if the kid is mine, I gotta know," Chris persisted.

"It isn't," Lucas said, struggling to keep his voice low. "You slept with Brooke almost four months ago. She'd be showing by now if it was yours."

Chris seemed to ponder this. "Dodged that bullet, didn't I?"

"Yeah, sure," Lucas said, annoyed. "Is that settled, then?"

"Good talk," Chris said before hanging up. Lucas took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

"What was that about?" Brooke asked curiously, popping out of their new room. "You seem mad."

"It was Keller," Lucas said gently, turning around to talk to her. "But I settled it. You don't need to worry about that anymore, babe."

Brooke smiled at him. "Thanks Broody."

"Of course," he said, kissing her. "Hey, would you mind if I go talk to Peyton? I think we need to have a chat."

Brooke thought about this for a second. "I think I need to be the one to do it."

"Brooke-"

"I won't stress myself out too much," Brooke promised. "But her problem is obviously with me, and I need to be the one to talk to her."

"Okay," Lucas said a little reluctantly. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," Brooke assured, kissing him softly. "Thanks for worrying about me."

"Both of you," Lucas corrected, putting his hand on her still flat stomach.

She smiled even bigger. "I'm gonna go now before I chicken out. I'll be home soon, okay?"

"I'll get us dinner," Lucas said, kissing her and wrapping his arms around her.

When Brooke drove up to Peyton's house, her stomach was in knots. She ran a hand through her hair before lifting her hand to knock on the door. The action felt strange. She hadn't knocked on Peyton's door since the second grade.

Peyton swung open the door, obviously surprised to see Brooke standing there. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "Hi."

"Hi Peyton," Brooke said quietly. "Can I talk to you?"

"Congratulations," Peyton said, but the word seemed strange in her cold voice. "On the baby."

"Look, Peyton, I'm sure this is hard for you. I know you love Lucas. And me having this baby pretty much ruins any plans you had of being with him-"

"It's not like you're married," Peyton said coolly. Brooke stumbled back a step, taken aback by her former best friend.

"You know what, that's true," Brooke said with a shrug. "But even if Lucas and I don't work out, he will never love someone that doesn't love his kid. So it looks like you're out of luck, Sawyer."

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Did you come here just to show off that you won, Brooke?"

"No," Brooke said with a humorless chuckle. "I came here with the intention of getting my best friend back, but it's pretty obvious that she's gone."

"Yeah, well, so is mine," Peyton scoffed. "Where did fun Brooke go? The one who would give up anything for me?"

"She was sick of losing," Brooke hissed. "She was sick of giving up everything for someone who wouldn't give up anything for her in return. She got tired of being selfless and decided to take a page out of her best friend's selfish book."

Peyton narrowed her eyes. "Get out of here, Brooke."

"No," Brooke said defiantly. "Not until you hear me out. You've heard it from Lucas and Nathan and even Haley, but not from me, and I think you need to hear it. I would have done anything for you, Peyton. I would have died for you in that school. I loved you more than I loved anyone else. More than Lucas, more than myself. But you could never return that favor. And even though it breaks my heart to do it, I have to walk away from you because I can't keep letting you walk all over me. I'll always care about you, Peyton. I'll never hate you. But I can't do this anymore."

Brooke took a deep breath through her tears and turned to walk away. She jumped with a scream when a potted plant broke on the sidewalk beside her.

"Shut up!" Peyton screamed from the porch. "You think you're perfect! Perfect clothes, perfect life, perfect boyfriend! You're not! You're just the party girl slut, Brooke Davis, and you shouldn't forget that."

"No," Brooke said, her tears flowing freely down her face now. "I was the girl stupid enough to give up ten years of her life for you, Peyton. Stay away from me and stay away from my family."

Brooke sped off in her little blue Bug, shuddering with her tears. She had secretly hoped, deep down, that Peyton would cry with remorse. That she would explain that it had been Jake she'd wanted all along and that it was all a huge mistake, that she hadn't meant it and she couldn't believe she could ever think she did. She wanted to hug her friend and have it all go away, but that was obviously not in the cards for the two of them.

For the first time since the second grade, Brooke Davis was truly separated irreparably from Peyton Sawyer. No more giggling on Peyton's orange bed spread. No more hoes over bros. No more tanning on the boat. No more cooking for Larry when he came home from sea.

Brooke had expected some kind of victory to come out of finally explaining to Peyton how truly twisted their friendship had been, but instead of victory, she simply felt pain. Despite everything Peyton had done, Brooke had held on to the hope that somewhere underneath the selfishness, she could unearth the real Peyton Sawyer. She had been wrong.

When she arrived back at the apartment, she was still in tears. Lucas was in the kitchen unpacking groceries when she arrived home.

"Hey you, I got us some food and-oh god, Brooke, are you okay?"

He went to her immediately, pulling her to him as she cried.

"Part of me hoped that things could go back to the way they were," Brooke sniffled. "But it ended with me telling her to stay away from me and my family. I used to think she was my family."

"It's okay, pretty girl," Lucas soothed. "It's hard to lose her, but you've gained a whole new family now. Me, the baby, Nathan, Haley...we're all here for you. Unconditionally, no matter what."

"You're right," Brooke said, wiping the rest of her tears away. "I can't waste my time grieving the loss of a person that I hardly even knew."

Lucas shook his head. "You can take all the time to grieve that you need, Brooke. You just have to remember that at the end of the day, there are people who love you."

Brooke smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Luke. I'm gonna go take a shower."

"Okay," Lucas said, kissing her. "I'll get started on dinner."

"How did I get so lucky?" Brooke grinned.

"My dad tried to kill you," Lucas joked. Brooke giggled and skipped off to the bathroom, leaving a smiling Lucas behind.

His smile slowly faded as he turned to the task at hand. His little joke was the truth. His father had tried to kill Brooke. He and Nathan had been looking in to the situation with Dan, trying to find out where he might have gone. For all of their many talents and skills, however, snooping didn't seem to be one of them. Neither of them could get in to his computers, either at his home or his office. He thought to the guns that he and Nathan had obtained at a pawn shop just days ago. He wondered if his brother had told Haley, because he certainly hadn't told Brooke.

As much as he wanted to believe that the police would find him and bring him to justice, Lucas couldn't help but worry about Brooke's safety in the meantime. The part of him that constantly felt as though he had never truly protected Brooke wanted to hunt down Dan and deliver justice himself. But the part of him that was growing up and maturing, preparing to become a father at eighteen, knew that his place was in his home, doing the best he could for his girlfriend and unborn child.

He heard Brooke singing from the shower, a song that he knew to be her and Peyton's song. Lucas quelled his thoughts on his father and his misdeeds; now was not the time to worry about that. He smiled as he had an idea.

"Hello?" came the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, it's me. You and Nate wanna come to dinner at me and Brooke's apartment?"

"We were actually gonna go out to eat," Haley replied. "But you guys should come! Please! We could have a little double date, it'll be really fun!"

"I'll ask Brooke and text you," Lucas said, laughing at her enthusiasm. "She talked to Peyton today and it didn't go very well, I think she could use some friends right now."

"Do I have to kick some ass?" Haley asked, dead serious. Lucas laughed at his usually rule-abiding and polite best friend.

"No, Hales, I think Brooke managed to do that verbally today. I'll see you later."

Brooke was just as enthusiastic as Haley at the prospect of going on a double date with her best friends, and got ready at nearly record speed. Lucas smiled at her as she emerged from their room in a red sundress.

"You're gorgeous," he grinned, kissing her. "We're going to that little Italian place that you and Hales swear by."

"Yes!" Brooke squealed. "Come on, Broody, food time!"

During dinner, Lucas watched his girlfriend carefully. She was almost indistinguishable from the broken girl who had come home from a dramatic confrontation earlier. Her eyes weren't numb and devastated anymore. They were twinkling and sparkling as she teased her friends and him, giggling and gossiping. Haley and Brooke were excitedly discussing plans for the second wedding when Lucas had a sudden, startling thought.

He wanted to marry Brooke Davis.

And the most startling thing about the revelation was that it wasn't very startling at all.

This update came slower than normal because I re-wrote the entire thing. I was originally going to have Brooke and Peyton make up, as I usually do in my stories, because I do like their friendship. But then I decided that it was about time that Brooke got to be selfish and happy, and the Peyton in this story wouldn't just suddenly apologize. So there ya have it, I hope you're happy with how it turned out!