Chapter 12 - Pretty Little Thing

Nathan and Lucas ran in from the other room.

"She's...She's what?" Nathan asked.

"In labor! Come on! We have to get to the hospital!" Brooke yelled, moving Haley towards the door.

"I'll go bring the car to the door." Lucas said, grabbing the keys off the hook and running out the door. Nathan grabbed Haley's other arm and wrapped around his shoulder as he carried her out the door. Lucas drove as fast as he could to the hospital, and arrived in a very quick fifteen minutes. Four hours later, Lucas, Brooke, Karen, Keith and Deb were patiently anticipating the arrival of the baby in the waiting room.

"Well, since we know it's a girl, we can't exactly make bets on what it's gonna be." Brooke said, interrupting the silence that had fallen upon the tired group for the past half an hour.

"True. We can make bets on what time she'll arrive." Keith suggested.

"Okay. Well if it's 12:30 A.M. now, I'm gonna go with 1:30." Brooke said.

"2:15." Lucas added.

"1:00." Deb said.

"I'm gonna say 1:30 with Brooke." Keith told them.

"I bet you Nathan will be out here within 15 minutes." Karen finished.

"Okay. What does the winner get?" Lucas asked.

"Five dollars. Each of us gives one." Keith said.

"Okay." "Cool." "Good." The others said.

Ten minutes passed by. Every time someone walked through the doors leading down the hallway where Haley's room was, everyone's heads immediately flew to that direction. Five times, it was a doctor. Until now.

"Nathan!" Deb yelled and everyone got up and walked over to him.

"She's here!" He said proudly. Deb and Karen got tears in their eyes.

"Congratulations!" Lucas said, shaking his hand.

"Details!" Brooke demanded.

"She's seven pounds, three ounces and twenty inches long." Nathan explained.

"And what'd you decide to name her?" Karen asked.

"Lindsay Kate Scott." Nathan told them.

"Aw! That's so cute!" Brooke squealed.

"Thank you. Unfortunately, you're not gonna be able to see her tonight since it's late and visiting hours will start tomorrow." Nathan said.

"Okay. We'll be here bright and early!" Brooke said. "Congratulations, again, Nate. Tell Haley I said the same thing."

"Thanks, guys. I'm so glad you were all here. See you all tomorrow." Nathan said, receiving few last congratulatory hugs before heading back to see Haley.

"I'm so happy for them." Lucas said as the five went back to the chairs to grab their things before leaving the hospital.

"Me too." Deb agreed.

"Hey, I won the bet!" Karen realized.

"You did." Brooke agreed.

"Yes. Pay up, everyone." Karen said, putting her hand out while everyone grabbed a dollar out of their pockets.

---

Nathan walked back into the room and found a very exhausted Haley smiling at him.

"Hi, Daddy." She giggled. He laughed.

"How's Mommy doing?" He asked.

"Fine. I want them to bring Lindsay back." Haley whined.

"They're going to. She just needs to be cleaned off and everything." Nathan told her, now kneeling down on the floor so he was level with her and holding her hand. "I'm so proud of you, Hales."

"Thanks, Nathan." She said. "I'm so excited that she's finally here."

"Me too." Nathan agreed.

"Okay. Would you like to hold Miss Lindsay?" A nurse said as she held a very small and wrapped up Lindsay in her arms.

"Please!" Haley squealed, as the nurse handed Lindsay to her. "Aw. She's so gorgeous. She looks like you, Nate."

"You think so?" He asked.

"Definitely." Haley said. "She's so little!"

"I know. I forgot babies are actually that small." Nathan said.

"Here, you hold her." Haley said, handing Lindsay to Nathan. He cautiously took her from Haley's arms and stared at the sleeping baby. She had wisps of soft, dark blonde hair and blue eyes. She definitely looked like him, but also had perfect pieces of Haley in her, too. He couldn't believe that she was his; that this was something Haley and he had created together.

"Nathan, she's like the size of your hand!" Haley joked. He laughed.

"Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll sleep like this straight through the night." Nathan said.

"Don't get your hopes up." Haley said.

They continued to gaze at their gorgeous daughter before Haley fell asleep and the nurse took Lindsay into the nursery for the night. Nathan fell asleep on the couch. Morning quickly arrived and with the morning came the anxious visitors. Brooke could hardly wait as she and Lucas drove to the hospital at 10:30 the next morning. Luckily it was Saturday, so he had the day off. He had already told Nathan to take as much time off as he and Haley needed when they brought home the baby.

"Who do you think she's going to look like?" Brooke asked.

"I don't know, Brooke. Probably Nathan. I think most girls look like their fathers. In our case, however, I'd want our daughter to look like you." He said.

"You're so sweet. But a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that looked like you would knock all the boys dead." Brooke joked. He laughed.

"I wonder how Haley's doing." Lucas said.

"Me too. I'm sure she's doing great though, because we'd have heard otherwise by now." Brooke told him.

"Yeah. I was thinking the same thing." He stated.

"I wonder how badly it hurt." Brooke said.

"How badly what hurt?" He asked.

"Labor. Just thinking about it makes me cringe." Brooke said. Lucas laughed. Typical Brooke.

"I think it's probably all worth it when you've got a baby in your arms afterwards." Lucas said.

"Yeah. Me too." She said, looking over at him and smiling. She thought about how great it was going to be when she and Lucas had kids.

"You remembered the gift, right?" Lucas asked.

"Of course, Broody." She replied.

"Just checking." He said.

Ten minutes later, Brooke and Lucas were walking into Haley's room. She was sitting on the edge of the bed talking to Nathan, who was sitting down on the chair, holding Lindsay.

"Aw!" Brooke said, as she walked in and saw the baby in Nathan's arms.

"Hi, guys!" Haley said.

"Haley! Congratulations!" Brooke squealed, giving her a hug and handing her the gift.

"Congratulations, Hales." Lucas said, also giving her a hug.

"Thank you." Haley said, opening up the pink box. She quickly held up two tiny outfits. "Oh, these are gorgeous!"

"Glad you like them." Brooke said, while she and Lucas gazed at Lindsay.

"Here, hold her, Brooke." Nathan said, giving Lindsay to her. Brooke took her and nestled her into her arms and started cooing to her.

"Hello, Lindsay. I'm your Aunt Brooke. You're absolutely gorgeous." Brooke said to the baby. "Broody, you were right. She looks like Nathan."

"Babe, I'm always right." Lucas replied.

"Yeah, so am I." Nathan agreed. They both nodded, pretending to be serious.

"But she's got Haley's hair. And mouth." Brooke added.

"Yeah, that's what Nathan thinks." Haley said.

"Let me hold my beautiful niece." Lucas said. Brooke walked over to where he was sitting and handed Lindsay to him.

"Okay. So I'm not gonna be queer and practically sing to you like your aunt over there did, but I'll just tell you that I'm your Uncle Lucas. Welcome to the world, kiddo." He said to the sleeping baby. Everyone laughed. "Good luck with these parents of yours." Lucas joked. "They're seriously not going to know what to do with you. But you can always come stay at my house."

"Yeah, because you also have a lot of experience with parenting." Nathan laughed.

"You bet. Actually, this is the first time I've held a baby in forever." Lucas admitted.

"And it won't be the last for awhile, so get used to it." Haley said.

"Does that mean we're going to be doing a lot of babysitting?" Brooke asked.

"Well, in the future for sure. Right now she's gonna stay with me all the time." Haley said proudly. "But when Nathan goes back to work, I'm hoping you'd like to come over and keep me company."

"Of course!" Brooke squealed.

"So, you guys are gonna have to get yourselves one of these to keep up with us." Nathan asked Lucas and Brooke as he pointed towards Lindsay.

"Jesus, Nate. Let us get married first." Lucas said.

"I know. I'm just kidding." Nathan replied. Everyone laughed.

"Oh. I have a question for the both of you." Haley said to Brooke and Lucas. "Would you be willing to be Lindsay's godparents?"

"Absolutely!" Brooke exclaimed.

"We would be honored." Lucas said.

"Okay, good. Thank you." Haley said.

An hour past, and Karen and Keith as well as Nathan's Uncle Cooper arrived, and Brooke and Lucas finally decided they'd leave.

"So, we're godparents now, Broody." Brooke said as she and Lucas walked out of the hospital hallway and onto the elevator hand-in-hand.

"Yes we are." He agreed, pressing the button that would take them down to the lobby. There was no one else in the elevator, so Brooke decided to take advantage of it. She pulled him over to her and gave him a long and passionate kiss before the elevator beeped, telling them they were on the lobby. They quickly cleaned themselves up before the doors opened.

"That was random." Lucas said as they walked through the lobby.

"Yeah. I was caught in the moment." She said.

"You should be caught in the moment more often." He joked. She laughed.

"Did I ever tell you about when I thought I was pregnant?" Brooke asked Lucas. His eyes widened.

"Pregnant? When?" He asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Not recently, Luke! I meant like, when I was eight." Brooke said. He continued walking.

"Okay. So it wasn't like at all during the time when we were together, but god, you were having sex when you were eight?" He asked.

"Calm down. I was not having sex when I was eight. I kissed a boy and my friend told me I could get pregnant from that. So I panicked until I found out it wasn't true." She told him. He laughed.

"Thank god." Lucas said.

"Yeah." She agreed. They got into their car and Brooke immediately turned the heat on.

"I hate that it's getting colder." Brooke said.

"Yeah. But it's not as cold here as it is in New York." Lucas told her.

"True." She replied. "Okay. Let's put some music on."

"Okay. But none of that Britney Spears crap." Lucas told her.

"I know, I know. I'll just put on the radio." Brooke said. She pushed the button and the sounds of Kenny Chesney's 'Me and You' filled the car.

Ordinary, no

Really don't think so

Not a love this true

Common destiny

We were meant to be

Me and you

"Aw, I love this song!" Brooke exclaimed. She sang along to the sweet words as Lucas nodded and smiled until the end of the song.

"That should be our wedding song." He said.

"It definitely should be." She agreed.

"Perfect." Lucas said. Brooke took a deep breath in excitement. The song said it all. She and Lucas were meant to be - there were no questions about it.