Something Crazy

Chapter Twelve-Cause I'm Counting on a New Beginning

Brooke yanked her hands away and scooted to the other side of the bed so she was at least a couple of feet away from his touch, "what!" she shook her head, "in case you've forgotten, we're not even together…" she closed her eyes and shook her head, still trying to make sense of his words. "So…so why would you even ask that?"

Lucas climbed on top of his bed and looked directly into her eyes, their faces only inches apart, "You are it for me, Brooke Davis. And if marrying you is the only way I can show you how much I love you and that I'll never hurt you again, then I want you to be my wife."

"I…" she sighed, "we're still kids, Lucas."

"But I love you and I know you still love me, I don't care what anybody says, if it's the right kind of love then it is enough." He raised his hand and carefully pushed back a dark strand of hair that had managed to escape the hold of her ponytail. He leaned in so their foreheads were now in contact, his gaze dropped to her lips, it had been so long since he had last tasted the sweetness of her lips, "if I could take it all back…I would."

A shaky sigh escaped her lips, "I know," she whispered. "But you can't."

"I guess that saying is true."

She couldn't deny the tingling sensation she was feeling as he cupped her face in his hands, "What saying?"

"You never realize what you've got until it's gone."

"But I'm not gone, Broody." In that moment, she knew, Brooke Davis knew that no matter how mad she was at Lucas she couldn't deny she was and would always be truly, madly and completely in love with him. It would take a while for the trust to be renewed, but for the first time in weeks she held out hope that everything would maybe, just maybe be ok.

His eyes widened, he couldn't even remember the last time she had called him that, "Brooke--"

"Just shut up and kiss me already."

And that's exactly what Lucas Scott did.

Almost instantly he captured her lips with his. He kept her face cupped in his hands and she wrapped her hands around his neck and pushed his lips deeper into her hers, seemingly not being able to get enough. They broke apart when Brooke lost her balance and fell against the pillows. She giggled in spite of the overall situation.

Lucas grinned; he loved the sound of her laughter, "wow." He spoke in between attempts to catch his breath. "I've missed that."

She nodded, "me too." She looked up at him, her demeanor once again serious, "about the marriage proposal…"

He shook his head, "I know."

She laughed through the tears, "we'll make it over one hurdle at a time…we're going to be parents, Lucas."

"I know."

"I'm scared."

He nodded, "but we'll be ok."

She sniffed, "I'm sorry I'm crying. I think my hormones are completely out of whack."

He chuckled, "it's ok to cry, Brooke."

"I'm tired," and then it suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks, "I have no place to go!"

He shook his head, "you'll stay here."

"I don't think your mom would appreciate that…"

"What's the worse that could happen?" he shrugged, "you're already pregnant."

She laughed in spite of her hormones, "that's true."

"And not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure she might love you more than me."

Brooke grinned, "well, it is hard not to love me."

"Oh how I know how true that statement is." He laid down next to her, "just get some sleep and we'll talk to my mom about everything tomorrow morning." She nodded and cuddled her body next to his as he pulled the blankets over them.

A comfortable silence settled between them in the darkness, "Brooke?" Lucas whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if it seemed like I was defending…"

"Don't say her name."

"Ok."

Another silence.

"Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

He grinned, pulling her closer to him, "I love you too, pretty girl."


The morning came too quick for Lucas.

He had been pulled out of his peaceful slumber when he rolled over to find the other side of his bed cold and empty. He sat up and looked around, had it all been just a dream? He looked down, he was wearing a t-shirt and he distinctly remembered Brooke wanting his favorite gray hoody…it couldn't have been a dream.

"Luke!" the sound of Nathan's voice and his fist pounding against the bedroom door startled him out of his bed.

He walked over to his door and pulled it open, "what do you want?"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "look, I love that your mom is letting me stay here but it sucks to only have one bathroom and right now it's being occupied by your pregnant ex-girlfriend."

"Girlfriend."

"What?"

A giddy grin appeared on Lucas' face, "we're back together."

Nathan raised a brow, "really? I don't think I wanna even know how that happened." he shook his head, "but I'm happy for you dude."

"Thanks. Now if you could just figure out your relationship with Haley."

"Ouch." He held a hand to his heart, "that hurt. Besides, Hales and I really aren't having problems…I just thought it was for the best if we didn't live together."

Lucas shook his head and chuckled, "dude, this is a small town and people talk." He shrugged, "not to mention Haley is my best friend."

He rolled his eyes, "whatever. I think I'm gonna head over to Tim's…if I'm lucky, he just might have a bathroom that isn't being occupied by a pregnant teen puking her guts out."

Luke shook his head as he watched Nathan round the corner towards the living room. He turned his gaze to his other side, down the hall where the very last door on the right was shut. He walked over there and lightly knocked on the white door, "Brooke?"

He heard her mumble something but he hadn't quite understood her words, before he even had a chance to wrap his hand around the door knob, his mother was brushing past him and letting herself into the bathroom.

On purpose or not, Karen had left the door open and the sight of Brooke made Lucas' stomach tie in knots. The color was completely drained from her face as she sat on her knees in front of the toilet, resting her arms on the seat to support herself from falling freely to the floor.

Brooke tried to keep her sense of humor as Karen placed the cool wash cloth to her forehead, "this is so not like a hangover."

Karen looked at her sternly, "well remember the last hangover you had because even after you've had this baby, you still won't be having a hangover until you're legally old enough to drink."

Brooke wanted to cry, and it wasn't completely because of her hormones. Although she knew underage drinking wasn't right, and sixteen year olds shouldn't be getting wasted five out of seven nights a week, nobody had ever told her she wasn't aloud to drink. Nobody had ever cared enough to tell her she wasn't aloud to drink. "Thank you." She mumbled.

"Thank you for what?"

"For acting like a parent is supposed to…for treating me like the child that I still am."

Karen frowned, "there's no need to thank me." She looked at the brunette with so much care, the color had finally started to creep back into her cheeks, "do you think you can make it to the living room?"

"Yeah, I think so." With the help of Karen, she pulled herself to her feet and took a few steps before she began to see double. She took a step backwards as she tried to focus on Lucas, she was sure if it wasn't for him grabbing a hold of her, she would have fallen straight to the cool tiled bathroom floor. "Thanks." She mumbled as Lucas wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her to the living room and onto the sofa.

Lucas was happy to see his mother had disappeared into the kitchen; he wanted a minute alone with Brooke. He turned his gaze back to the brunette, she was cuddled into one corner of the sofa, her arms wrapped around her midsection and her eyes were softly closed. He took a seat next to her, "hey," he whispered, causing her eyelids to flutter open, "is this how it is every morning?"

She nodded and leaned into his hand as he caressed her cheek, "it's not as bad as it seems, though."

He chuckled; he knew all too well that she was lying, "could have fooled me." He traced his fingers softly down her arm until he met her hand, "seriously, is it supposed to be this bad?"

"Dr. Bradley said it's different for everybody."

"But isn't there medicine or something for morning sickness?"

Karen came back into the living room with a bowl and a glass of milk in her hands, "yes there is. You'll have to call Dr. Bradley tomorrow and have him prescribe something to you." She sat the glass of milk down and handed the bowl to Brooke, "eat this, it should help."

She sat up a bit and took the bowl, looking curiously at its contents before looking back up at Karen, "what is it?"

"It's banana bread pudding mixed with vanilla pudding." Karen almost burst out laughing from the looks she received from both Brooke and Lucas, "it's actually pretty good and it calmed my morning sickness when I was pregnant with Lucas."

Karen's cell phone began to ring and once again she left Brooke and Lucas to themselves.

Lucas watched Brooke carefully as she took a tentative taste, "so how is it?"

She shrugged and made a face, "it's an acquired taste." She ate another spoonful, "but it's not upsetting my stomach."

"That's good."

She nodded, "yeah." She watched him carefully, he kept glancing at the back door "you're aloud to leave, you know."

He looked back at her, "huh?"

"You're aloud to leave to go play basketball with Nathan…I'll be fine by myself." He started to protest but she cut him off, "please go have some fun, I'm probably just going to go back to sleep and you'll be bored out of your mind."

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive."

"What about our talk with my mom?"

"We'll talk when you get back." she pulled him in for a kiss, "and when you come back, I wanna see Lucas, not Broody." She playfully pushed him away, "now go have fun."

He stood up, "I love you."

"I know you do." she grinned, "I love you, too."

By the time Karen had gotten back into the living room twenty minutes later, Lucas was no where to be seen and Brooke had finished the bowl of pudding. The brunette was casually flipping through the television stations when she noticed the older woman, she looked up and smiled, "thanks for pudding, it really helped and it actually doesn't taste too bad."

Karen grinned, "well I'm glad I could help." She continued to look around, "so where'd Lucas go?"

"I told him to go have some fun and play basketball with Nathan," She turned the tv off and sat the remote down, leaning back against the couch "if he'd had it his way he'd still be here fussing over me."

Karen nodded and took a seat at the other end of the sofa, "so are you going to tell me why you spent the night in Lucas' room?"

Brooke frowned and looked down at her hands, "my parents sorta found out that I was pregnant and they kicked me out."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry." Karen wrapped her arms around the brunette, pulling her into a comforting hug. The walls that Brooke had built up since last night had quickly crumbled into a million pieces and the tears began to fall freely.

Brooke pulled back and wiped her eyes, "and that's not all…" she sniffed, "I didn't tell Lucas that they cut me off."

"Cut you off?"

"They're no longer going to support me financially." Brooke readjusted her ponytail and sighed deeply, "I know Lucas works for his Uncle Keith but I'm pretty sure that salary alone won't be able to pay for everything that comes along with having a baby. I knew my parents would be mad but the one thing that kept me hopeful was that they would help me financially because that's pretty much all they've done my entire life and now that I have no place to go and no way to afford having this baby I have no idea what to do."

"Brooke."

The brunette had been lost in her own thoughts and hadn't heard the older woman speak her name, "and Lucas said I can just move in with you guys and I know it shouldn't matter because we're back together but I don't think I'm quite ready to live with him, I mean, maybe I'm doing things backwards but I'm afraid if he's around me 24/7 he'll start to hate me because of my out of whack hormones."

"Brooke."

The brunette looked up, the red creeping into her cheeks, "I was rambling, wasn't I?"

Karen nodded, "yeah, but sometimes that's the best way to get your thoughts out." She checked her watch, noting that she had to get back to the café soon. "Are you feeling up to leaving the house?"

"Yeah."

"Take a shower and get dressed, I need another waitress at the café."

Brooke's eyes widened, "you're hiring me? Aren't you supposed to interview me or something?"

Karen smiled, "do you get along with people?"

"For the most part."

"Do you know how to make coffee?"

She thought about it, "I know how to make cappuccinos so I'm sure I can learn how to make coffee."

"Then you're hired…Haley can teach you everything else."

Brooke squealed happily and tackled Karen with a hug, "thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" she pulled back and jumped off the couch, "I promise I won't let you down." She rushed out of the living room and into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Karen laughed; apparently Brooke's morning sickness had passed.


"Are you sure it's ok?" Brooke questioned Haley as she helped fold silverware into napkins. Brooke hadn't really taken the time to get to know Haley a whole lot, but her boyfriend's best friend was extremely sweet and Brooke had started to feel kind of bad for the way Nathan was treating her.

She had just finished telling Haley every single detail from last night and this morning and out of nowhere Haley had invited her to stay with her at her apartment.

"I'm positive." She pulled more napkins out of the box, "there's only one bedroom but there are two twin beds that I can pull apart and you can use one of them." Her demeanor turned somber, "I doubt Nathan will be moving back in with me anytime soon…from the little that he's told me, he absolutely loves it at Karen's."

Brooke rested her chin in the palm of her hand and placed her elbow on the counter as she watched Haley's movements intently, "I just think that Nathan has never been in a household full of so much love and acceptance before now."

Haley looked hurt, "but I love and accept him for who he is."

"I know…" she sighed, she didn't want to hurt Haley's feelings, but she knew exactly where Nathan was coming from. "But Karen treats him like another son and actually seems to care about him and not how many points he scored in the last basketball game…and Lucas is treating him like a brother, after every jerkish thing Nathan did to him. So maybe you should just give him time to find out who he is."

Haley sighed, "maybe you're right."

Brooke grinned, "I always am."


A/N: thanks so much for the 18 reviews (most for any chapter so far...wanna make it 20, now? lol. jkjk). But seriously, I was having a bad couple of weeks and they really boosted my confidence. Although, review/story alert wasn't working and that sucked. And that whole banana bread/vanilla pudding thing, someone actually told me that worked. lol. Most of you guys seemed to agree with me on the whole marriage proposal thing. lol.